Priorities: Homeland Security now vs. Missile Defense later

I just got done watching "The Pentagon Wars" -- again. The movie is based on the book of the same name by Col. James Burton, and explores the difficulties he ran into while trying to get realistic tests done on the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. It's one of my favourite movies, but since it's played as a bit of a farce, I know that there are most likely a number of liberties taken with the real story. So, tonight, I decided to do a bit of Googling on it to see what I could find out. Well, I didn't learn much more about the Bradley Fighting Vehicles, but I did stumble across something I found rather interesting.

President Bush has made no secret of the fact that he wants to get some form of a missle defense system up by next fall (hmmm... any particular reason for that timing, I wonder?) even if it's not exactly functional at that point.

Back in February, Slate published an article on why putting over $9 billion ("with a 'B'") into a program that almost certainly will not be working properly by the time Bush wants to have the initial stages deployed isn't really that great of an idea. The article also notes how doing that - deploying part of a not-yet-fully-developed and essentially non-functional weapons system - could backfire and, rather than serving as a deterrent to countries like North Korea to keep them from developing their own nuclear weapons, it could push them to try and develop more, faster, so that they can either try to use them before the defensive system is working or create enough missiles that they'd be able to overpower any defensive system we'd have in place.

Here's the part that really struck me, though. Bush keeps talking about how we have to win the "War on Terror™", and what kind of threats we're facing right now from al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. We're seeing a general weakening of our civil rights on the excuse that the government needs to violate these rights so that it can better protect us from terrorists. He plans to run his Presidential re-election campaign on the alleged strength of his leadership in the War on Terror™, and how much progress we've made in making America safer.

Yet, in spite of all this - and in spite of the fact that even if he can deploy part of his beloved missile defense system by next fall, it won't do us any real good - when he was given the opportunity to take nearly a billion dollars from the missile defense program and give it to the Homeland Security Department to be used however he wanted, he refused the offer.

That's right. Bush would rather spend money on a high-tech defensive system that might (but certainly can't be guaranteed to) help keep us safer several years from now, than to spend it on programs and security measures that would help protect us better right now.

What might motivate him to put off better security now for possible security later? The article itself doesn't speculate on his reasons, but I will. The missile defense system is being developed by defense contractors. They get a good sized chunk of that $9 billion so that they can work on inventing the technology that the system will need in order to be functional in any meaningful way - and I think we all know that they take in a lot more money on projects like this than they need to. These are the people who come up with the $100 hammers after all, and they also frequently make big contributions to (mainly) Republican campaigns and politicians.

The next time you hear Bush expressing concern for the safety and well-being of Americans, or we're told about one of the many threats of impending terrorist attacks here in the country, or even when someone in the administration starts talking about how we need to give up more of our rights so that its easier for law enforcement to catch terrorists, remember that Bush's clear priority is not to protect America and ensure the safety of her citizens - at least not in the short term. His priority is to give as much money as possible to companies who, in general, support his campaign and, of course, expect to get their pockets lined in return.

There is no justification for Bush to have refused this offer. Many states are struggling under the burden of the costs for increase security as demanded by the Homeland Security Department - especially during times when we are under an orange alert. As a result, they're being forced to cut back in other areas, including funding of first responders and education. (One Senator even suggested that, to help save costs, first responders should be required to put in overtime hours without overtime pay, since we're at war, and our soldiers - who are essentially on duty around the clock while living away from home - don't get overtime pay.) That $817 million dollars could have gone quite a ways in helping states to pay for the security measures they need to take, and possibly even to help with increasing the security of our ports, which are notoriously underfunded at the moment.

Another interesting tidbit that the article mentions is that in addition to wanting to deploy components of this partially-finished missile defense system, the Department of Defense wants Congress to exempt the missile defense program from the laws that require all weapons systems to undergo operational testing before they're deployed. These laws were established following the situation with the Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and are intended to help ensure that any weapons systems that are deployed are capable of doing what they're supposed to, and that they can do it safely, so that soldiers and civilians will not be put at any unnecessary risk from them.

But Bush and his team want to deploy an unfinished - and untested system next fall, without any way of knowing if it will ever be able to do its job and no indication of what could go wrong with it.

Does he think that our enemies won't notice that the system doesn't work? (They'll know that if they read our news, as its no secret now that there's no realistic way that it could be operational by that time, and I'm sure it won't be any secret if it's still not working when it's deployed in the field.)

In a way, I'm almost at a loss for words (present evidence to the contrary notwithstanding). The idiocy, illogic and audaciousness of this plan is astounding. I know I'd much rather have my tax dollars going to help the states with affording the cost of Homeland Security demands, or to beefing up our ports, or something that would do us some good now, and maybe wait an extra year on the Star Wars plan that may or may not be workable.

The whole thing is just insane.