U.S. ADMINISTRATION POLICY

On December 18, 2002, President Bush announced his intent to have ground based interceptors, sea-based interceptors, additional Patriot (PAC-3) units and sensors based on land, at sea and in space beginning in 2004 . The plan calls for 16 ground-based interceptors at Fort Greely, Alaska; 4 interceptors at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, and 20 sea-based interceptors on Navy Aegis ships.

This announcement comes as no suprise to those who have followed the thoughts of first candidate Bush and then President Bush. The current administration, and many in the Pentagon, clearly believe that the United States needs to aggressively develop and deploy such weapons, even if they don't necessarily work.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is quoted in the St. Louis Post Dispatch (December 18, 2002) as follows: "I like the idea of putting something in the ground and in the sea and getting comfortable with it. Every program doesn't arrive fully developed. It will evolve over time." So much for the idea of making sure something works in advance.

Theresa Hitchens of the Center for Defense Information is one of many serious critics of the Bush policy on missile defense(."The general failure of the current administration to consider space weaponization from a broad policy perspective, and the deliberate shunning of arms control options, are both serious mistakes. There are a multitude of reasons to believe that the advent of weapons in space might actually undermine not only US security, but also global stability. Conversely there is strong reason to believe that international arms control agreements could not only enhance international security, but also protect the edge the United States now enjoys in space."