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February 08, 2005

DefenseTech.Org brings the welcome news of an annual billion-dollar cut in the proposed Pentagon budget for national missile defense. The cut is ironic in two ways: Generally, the Bush wing of the Republican Party and its congressional allies have been not just friendly but fervent in their belief that NMD is technically possible and fiscally feasible--this belief persisting despite all evidence to the contrary.

More specifically, the decision is a shocker because it was the 1998 Rumsfeld Commission Report (produced by a congressional task force headed by the once and future Secretary) that concluded that an ICBM threat could arise much quicker than the CIA predicted--a conclusion dramatically underscored when, not a month after the commission presented its findings, North Korea tested the Taepo-Dong two-stage missile without warning.

Now Rumsfeld, faced with budget constraints and a dramatically changed international situation, is doing the right thing and making the tough choices that policymakers must. It remains to be seen whether, as might happen with other proposed Pentagon cuts, the NMD program will have its funding increased during the appropriations process. Nevertheless, this is welcome news from a bureaucracy that has spent tens of billions for trivial results.

Posted by Paul Musgrave at February 8, 2005 02:22 PM

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