BRUSSELS -- It is difficult to understand the Bush administration's determination to deploy a national missile defense system, or NMD. All test launches to date -- to prevent theoretical nuclear missile attacks -- have been either failures or "partial successes."
One supposes things can only get better, yet even technological perfection would not deal with the real problem. What if "rogue states" refuse to act out their assigned role in the United States' script? After all, no member of U.S. President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" has signed any agreement saying it will use intercontinental ballistic missiles to deliver its weapons of mass destruction. It would certainly be cheaper and easier to deliver by post or by ship -- and infinitely more deniable.
Ballistic missiles carry an indelible return address and a guarantee that state actors are involved. Deadly retaliation is inevitable. With so many anonymous options available, what state would allow its territory to be used to launch a missile strike against the U.S.?