snjoseph's Journal: Rummy's Triumph of the Will!

Reuters: Rumsfeld Defends U.S. Missile Shield as Triumph

It's too bad Rummy is something of a political liability these days; I've always enjoyed the man's style.

The secretary noted that the first ground-based U.S. interceptor missile was in recent weeks put into place in Fort Greeley, Alaska, two years after Bush announced a decision to deploy an initial missile defense.

"These achievements represent the triumph of hope and vision over pessimism and skepticism," he added.

Yes, it is surely the profoundest hope of all Americans to be surrounded by a cordon of space lasers and magical evil-seeking missiles.

Rumsfeld expressed righteous indignation that "some folks still argue that missile defense can't work." But no one argues that it can't work--people merely argue that it doesn't work, which is less of an argument than a simple statement of an objective fact. Rummy also said that critics who asserted the system is politically destablizing have been proven wrong. Well, if Star Wars isn't destabilizing, it's because it doesn't work. No one would be scared if tomorrow India announced it was going to entrust its defense to a giant reincarnation of Hanuman; it's no less fantastic just because America worships phaser beams instead of monkeys.

Although of course Star Wars is a cause for universal rejoicing on any occasion, Rummy's speech was a thinly-veiled attack on John Kerry, who has boldly demarcated himself from Bush by suggesting that the rapid increase in funding for missile defense over the next five years should be somewhat decreased, maybe. Now that Kerry's been given a little spank, watch out for him to "clarify" his position by pointing out how he actually wants a smarter Star Wars that's more muscularly multilateral. With like a UN High Commissioner for Photon Torpedos, or something.

All kidding aside, though, I must admit that these interception-related program activities have proven very effective against weapons-related program activities.

Subsidy

[freejung]

The whole thing is just an excuse to subsidize lasers, and as such is probably a good idea. The only problem is that if they could actually get it to work, it would be hideously dangerous.

Re:Subsidy

[snjoseph]

It is amusing to me that, under the prevailing socioeconomic order, it is necessary to "justify" the subsidy of something constructive and useful (eg, lasers) by means of its destructive and wasteful application (eg, missile defense).

Madness of the system, yo.

Re:Subsidy

[freejung]

Interesting, isn't it? I used to be involved in physics, and that's basically the first question you have to answer when you apply for a grant: how can we kill people with this? Of course they don't put it in so many words, but that's what it boils down to. I was working on something that seemed pretty innocuous, until you realize that it may lead to the development of quantum computers, which are staggeringly cool devices, but would incidentally give the NSA the ability to crack all existing encryption. Gl