The Bush administration is zealous about so many nutty things it’s hard to keep track. Missile defense (“Star Wars” and its ilk) is one of them I had almost forgotten about. Apparently they hope to spend over $10 billion per year to develop a defense that doesn’t work against an enemy that doesn’t really exist.
Physicists have long known that the missile-defense plans are mostly scams; they are wildly optimistic, overhyped, undertested, and usually misrepresented. It’s just hard to shoot down a bullet with another bullet; and when the incoming bullet can use countermeasures, it’s practically impossible. Now a group of generals and admirals is saying the same thing: this is a colossal waste of money, let’s spend that money doing something useful like, say, protecting against terrorism. The military experts have an uphill battle; they don’t appreciate that the administration finds the battle against terror kind of boring, and is easily distracted by shiny objects.