BRUSSELS -- The argument for missile defense is based on a series of misunderstandings and exaggerations. The claimed threat is neither real nor credible. Yet U.S. President George W. Bush is using it to underpin the United States' deployment of MD in the interests of the arms industry and to the detriment of world peace.
The idea is to erect over the United States an impenetrable umbrella of antiballistic missiles, giving the U.S. immunity from intercontinental ballistic missiles tipped with nuclear warheads from any of the world's current list of rogue states.
While for a minority in the Bush administration it is payback time for the $3 billion that the military-industrial complex chipped into the presidential election campaign pot, others have bought the technical and political arguments.