- Washington Post: Democrats in Congress are building a legislative roadblock to the Bush administration’s plan to place elements of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
- The Senate is expected to join the House next week in reducing funds in the fiscal 2008 Defense Authorization Bill for construction of 10 interceptor missile sites in Poland and for deployment of an X-band radar in the Czech Republic. The House, in passing its version of the legislation last month, cut $40 million from the bill, which would have funded preparation of the Polish sites next year. The move prevents the White House from proceeding unless President Bush vetoes the measure.
Should Bush pull his spoiled brat trick and veto this bill he will put the entire defense budget in jeopardy. But you know it will be someone else’s fault.
- The Senate Armed Services Committee, justifying its decision to delay funding for the European antimissile sites, emphasized not only foreign policy concerns but also technical issues surrounding the interceptor missiles.
- The panel also noted that moving ahead without NATO participation in a system that is in part intended to protect Europe from Iranian missiles would cost the United States an estimated $4 billion through fiscal 2013. “NATO, which has not yet decided to pursue missile defense of its territory, has not endorsed or rejected the proposed deployment,” the panel’s report added.
In typical Bush style of spending money on an imaginary threat, doing outside of NATO and the fact that nobody in the region wants it. Now lets look at some more of information the Senate committee uncovered on Bush’s little brainstorm.
- The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has told the Senate panel that construction and deployment could not begin until the two countries ratify agreements with the United States, estimating that such actions “would not take place before 2009,” according to the report. Polish officials, hearing Russian objections to the U.S. system so near their border, have also raised questions about the additional U.S. military support that would come with placement of the interceptors on their soil.
We won’t know if everyone agrees until Bush is out of office. So does Bush plan on hanging around the West Wing for the meetings to conclude? No, Bush will leave another mess for the next president.
- The Senate panel also noted that the interceptor to be placed in Poland “has not yet been developed or tested, and is not currently planned to be flight-tested until 2010.” Therefore, the committee concluded, “it could be several years before it is known if the interceptor will work in an operationally effective manner.”
Brilliant, upset a region, put the U.S. and Russia on verge of another cold war and spend money we don’t have, for a project that still on scratch paper. I wonder what Bush’s “plan B” look like.
Here’s another little nugget Bush neglected to tell anyone.
- Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry A. Obering III, director of the Missile Defense Agency, recently testified before the panel that U.S. intelligence misjudged North Korea’s ability to launch a long-range missile in 1998. “Right now, the experts are saying that Iran will not have an ICBM until the 2010-2015 time frame,” Obering said.
Bush the true weapon of mass destruction.
Original article: Congress To Stop Missile Defense Plan
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