PRESIDENT George Bush outlined his vision of a national missile-defence
programme last week. Many critics say the scheme will be ineffective and
staggeringly expensive.
Bush revealed sketchy details of his concept of a “layered” defence system,
which would force enemy missiles to evade a series of ground, sea and air
defences. The scheme is far more modest than Ronald Reagan’s space-based
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or “Star Wars” proposal of the early 1980s.
SDI sought to block a full-scale attack by the now defunct Soviet Union, while
Bush’s proposed system seeks only to stop a few missiles from a rogue state.…
