Missile Defense

I made a mention of missile defense (or the lack thereof) in this post... See here for the full measure:

Bush's budget for next year includes $10.7 billion for missile defense—over twice as much money as for any other single weapons system. This summer, he's planning to start deploying the first components of an MD system—six anti-missile missiles in Alaska, four in California, and as many as 20 more, in locations not yet chosen, the following year.

Yet, except by sheer luck, these interceptors will not be able to shoot down enemy missiles. Or, to put it more precisely, Bush is starting to deploy very expensive weapons without the slightest bit of evidence that they have any chance of working.

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A missile can hit another missile in mid-air as long as a) the operators know exactly where the target missile has come from and where it's going; b) the target missile is flying at a slower-than-normal speed; c) it's transmitting a special beam that exaggerates its radar signature, thus making it easier to track; d) only one target missile has been launched; and e) the "attack" happens in daylight.

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Already, the $10.7 billion that Bush is spending for fiscal year 2005 is more than the entire U.S. Army is spending on research and development. More to the point, it's nearly twice as much as the Department of Homeland Security is spending on customs and border patrol.

"Shortly after 9/11, we were locking up everybody. There was no exception," says recently retired U.S. Border Agent Peter Kush. "We seem to be going back to the same old, same old song and dance."

One Vermont sheriff says border patrol detainees in his jail have dropped 75 percent since April. "I was told kind of unofficially by telephone that the monies had run out," says Franklin County Sheriff Robert Norris.

Indeed, documents obtained by NBC News show that over the last month, illegal immigrants were repeatedly "released due to lack of detention funds."