For those of you on the West Coast:

Soon you will be safe and secure in your homes, your schools, and your shopping malls thanks to the Bush administration’s plan to bypass the testing and approval process for America’s missile defense shield. If you’re worried about having untested missile defense systems stationed throughout your cities – don’t. After all, Donald Rumsfeld says we don’t need no stinking tests!

This system is comprised of many, many little “friendly missiles,” which seek and destroy big “bad guy missiles.” Of course, without testing, we’ll never know how likely it would be for one of our “friendly missiles” to malfunction, and then seek and destroy the nearest “bad guy home,” “bad guy school,” or “bad guy shopping mall” in the area. Or will we?

This whole thing stinks. The Pentagon doesn’t even want this system, and our peers on the Pacific Rim (China and Russia) believe that the introduction of a missile shield can only serve to destabilize the delicate geopolitical balance in the area.

Since these systems are designed to take out missiles and not fuel laden passenger planes flown by terrorists, we know the missile defense shield is not meant to protect us from al-Qa’ida.

So that leaves North Korea. The starving, frigged, Stalinist wasteland who just happens to be capable of producing a nuclear weapon. Despite all the media fanfare, we’ve known about that capability since 1997.

North Korea has yet to field test an operational ballistic missile that could reach the U.S. (Much like we have yet to field test a missile shield that could protect the U.S.). Are they really a threat? You bet your ass. But that’s why we have diplomacy$.

We offered them an aid package as a bribe a few months ago. They rejected it. It might be worth noting that we offered them 90 Million in aid (notice the M there). That wouldn’t be enough to buy heating oil for one of their cities through the harsh winter.

We walked away from the table after that. In turn, they re-started their nuclear power plants. North Korea is about as cold as Maine, I can easily imagine attempting to live through the winter without heating oil or electricity. I’d last about week. Take away food and clean water…Well, you can see North Korea’s predicament.

Meanwhile, a hungry, freezing, armed North Korea watches the administration begin shoveling Billions of U.S. tax dollars onto ships bound for Turkey, Africa, and Eastern Europe – buying their support for our war in Iraq. North Korea is still in the cold after all these months. Yet instead of engaging them we shut them out with our missile defense shield. If we’re not willing to deal$ with North Korea now, then we will have to deal with them later.

Labels: Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, missile defense, national security, North Korea