$40 billion for missile defense that doesn’t work? It’s cheaper (and better) to get rid of nukes

To the editor: Bravo to Times journalist David Willman for his excellent investigative reporting on ground-based missile defense failures, which the Pentagon and missile defense contractors have deceptively described as “successful.” (“A test of America’s homeland missile defense system found a problem. Why did the Pentagon call it a success?” July 6)

Perhaps raking in more than $40 billion from taxpayers since 2004 to produce a useless product is what the Missile Defense Agency and its contractors define as success.

It is clear that missile defense programs cannot provide any realistic defense for the people of the United States against nuclear weapons. Our only real protection against these instruments of mass annihilation would be their abolition. Toward that end, we should be engaged in good faith negotiations for total nuclear disarmament, as is our obligation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and customary international law.

David Krieger, Santa Barbara

The writer is president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

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To the editor: Two articles in Wednesday’s Times convince me that the concept of classified information is a bogus one that for the most part is used to keep information from the public and to protect the government from having to disclose its mistakes.

In the article on missile defense, James D. Syring, director of the Missile Defense Agency, apparently deceived Congress about his program’s success.

According to another article, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was chastised for using a private email server. If Clinton is to be believed, “overzealous” intelligence officials marked the information in messages she sent as classified in order to prevent their release after the fact.

One can only wonder, given that we the voting public are not allowed to see the documents in question, whether those e-mails are similar to the ones covering up the failure of the anti-missile interceptor or whether they actually contain something that the average voter would view as needing to be classified.

It’s time to abolish the practice of classifying information, which apparently only spares the government embarrassment.

Robert P. Khoury, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Thank you for the brilliant report on the malfunctioning missile defense systems and the deception the Pentagon and its contractors use to cover up the truth.

Sadly, this program is only one of hundreds over the years that have taken trillions (yes, trillions) of taxpayer dollars for suspicious weapons and systems that primarily enrich those mining the military-industrial complex.

With articles like this one, maybe at some point citizens will begin to understand what is happening and try to rein in these kinds of outrageous boondoggles that steal money this country so desperately needs.

Ambrose Bruce Terrence, Marina del Rey

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To the editor: My job depends on my being able to do the most with the least. Yet our military-industrial complex benefits from billions of taxpayer dollars and still can’t get a missile test right.

I’d rather see a better return on investment. A fraction of that money could have been better spent on infrastructure and education, where it would do some lasting good.

Al Bonowitz, Huntington Beach

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