Action alert | August 2005
The folly of missile defense: Your chance to speak out
Amendment in Senate would transfer funds to preventing nuclear terrorism

What's your guess for the largest single item in the Pentagon budget:

• Locking down nuclear materials to keep them out of the hands of terrorists?
• Monitoring weapons of mass destruction all over the world?
• A complex, high-tech, untested system intended to defend against attack by long-range ballistic missiles?

Yep, it's the last one. Under the Bush administration, missile defenses have received $7 billion to $9 billion annually; the FY06 budget request is nearly $9 billion.

This is an extraordinary emphasis on missile defense -- at a time when real dangers to the security of the U.S. (and Europe) are growing daily.

The administration's top priority should be combating the threat of nuclear terrorism by increasing its programs to keep nuclear warheads and materials out of the hands of terrorists. Instead, this problem is getting a fraction of the attention and funding being given to missile defense. The missile defense system being rushed into deployment is not relevant to the war on terrorism.

MORE on the amendment

Sens. Levin (D-MI) and Reed (D-RI) have introduced an amendment cutting $50 million from missile defense, with funds going to non-proliferation programs.

On July 20, Sen. Levin pointed out that the bill authorizes more than $60 million in long-lead funding for more interceptors -- on top of the 30 the government is already buying -- even though those interceptors are not subject to operational testing and evaluation.

If we want a missile defense that works -- rather than one that sits on the ground and soaks up money -- we should insist on testing the missiles that we already have before we go out and buy more.

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