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Breaking News from America's Progressive Community... 1999
Releases
The press releases posted here have been provided to NewsCenter by the one of the many progressive organizations we have selected to participate. If you would like more information about this press release, you should contact the organization directly. |
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| FEBRUARY
9, 1999 3:03 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Council for a Livable World Luke Warren -202.546.0795 x. 127 John Isaacs - 202.543.4100 x. 131 |
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| $120 Billion and Counting And Still No Workable Ballistic Missile Defense System Exists | ||||
| WASHINGTON
- February 9 - A new study released today shows that U.S. spending on ballistic missile
defense (BMD) has now topped $120 billion over the last 40 years., and $67.7
billion since President Ronald Reagan launched his prized Star Wars program
in 1983.
This new total, produced by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), a Washington-based military reform think-tank, has recalculated the estimate originally produced by the Brookings Institution 1998 study "Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons since 1940" and adjusted those costs based on fiscal 2000 dollars. What makes this number particularly significant, other than the incredible sum of money, is that no successful BMD system has yet been built. Even the Patriot short range anti-ballistic missile system used in the Gulf War was a failure. Despite original claims by the Pentagon and the manufacturer, the General Accounting Office has found that the Patriots may not have shot down even one Iraqi SCUD missile. The constant stream of technological failures was reinforced this week when the Pentagon was forced to cancel over $800 billion in National Missile Defense contracts with Boeing and TRW due to cost overruns and ineffectiveness. Thus the intense effort over the past 40 years to develop some kind of workable BMD system has not paid off. The Pentagon has little to show for its billions of dollars and years of work. Recent tests of a less capable system than needed for a National Missile Defense have been successful only 4 out of 18 times. Despite this record of failure, the Senate Armed Services Committee today rushed out legislation introduced by Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran mandating National Missile Defense deployment as soon as technologically feasible. The Clinton Administration, to forestall this Republican ideological drive for a technological Maginot Line, recently announced added $6.6 billion to the budget to be spent over the next six years for a down payment on NMD deployment, bringing the total spending during that period to $10.5 billion. John Isaacs, the Council's President, charged that: "Driven by politics and ideology, the Administration and Congress are now in collusion to throw good money after bad. It is time to stop this fiscal madness and focus on workable solutions to the international problems that the U.S. faces," concluded Isaacs. ### |
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