Bush, Rumsfeld Try to Duck Missile Defense Testing

Re “Missile Defense Waiver Sought,” Feb. 24: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld takes stupidity to a lower level with his insistence that the military’s missile defense system be deployed even though he begrudgingly agrees it doesn’t work. To quote him, “I think we need to get something out there.” And President Bush, the ever-critical analyst that he is, apparently concurs.

At least when the French constructed their foolhardy Maginot line, their weapons were operational.

Robert M. Rocco

Los Angeles

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Bush’s desire for a missile defense system to proceed without rigorous testing shows his failure to take responsibility for costs probably exceeding $8 billion. He demands testing of millions of schoolchildren and claims that the science supporting issues he opposes is doubtful, but he now wants to avoid scientific and public scrutiny for his own questionable project. Past tests of the system showed failure or tests that were hedged, or both. Now Bush doesn’t seem to want the public to be properly informed or to scrutinize his shaky science. This is not the way of a democracy.

Ronald Roston

West Covina

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In 1957, under the auspices of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, some 30 scientists were gathered to perform long-range technological forecasting of future weapons systems. The study, called Toward New Horizons, was headed by Theodore von Karman, the first recipient of the U.S. National Medal of Science. One of the panels I chaired was that of ballistic missile defense. This panel included three Nobel Prize winners: Charles Townes (laser), William Shockley (solid-state transistor) and Edwin McMillan (chemistry).

Our report was one of discouragement. We cautioned that it would be much cheaper and easier for the offense to sophisticate, and confuse the defense, than it would be for the defense to “see through” and penetrate such countermeasures. To this date, the National Academy of Sciences has not contradicted our findings. Why then does the Bush administration propose to spend many tens of billions of dollars on a missile defense system while exempting it from the legally required operational testing?

Marvin Stern

Atascadero