NMD as a GOP political tool must be stopped.

[gulliver]

Recently, North Korea tested some missiles. One of the responses by the Bushies was that America's national missile defense (NMD) system was active. They didn't say it would have protected us if the missiles had headed our way. They didn't say it even works. They just said it was active and let the American people do the rest. "Whew! Thank goodness we have the missile defense our wonderful President made us deploy in his great foresight and wisdom."

NMD, whether it works or not (it doesn't, of course) has to be taken out of the political realm. Otherwise, the GOP and Bushists will be claiming it is a deterrent and taking credit for something that is at best an expensive failure, at worst a menace.

Here is my proposal. As part of the "Real Security" leg of the Dems "Six for '06" strategy, we demand $100 million for real world testing of NMD. The purpose would be to ensure that we can rely on this system for real security.

At a minimum, this would provoke debate, and Dems could point out the failure and fraudulence in the current NMD testing. The GOP will be seen to have sold us yet another lemon. Then, the mere thought of a true "war game" style test of Reagan's SDI legacy would send chills up the GOP spine. They know it doesn't work and never could.

Finally, the test occurs. The pretend rogue state fires three missiles (one real, two decoys) at one of 100 designated possible targets from a secret location, disguising the warheads and supplementing them with as many decoys as possible. The missiles and warheads will carry no homing beacon (a radical departure from NMD "testing" tradition). If NMD shoots it down, the Dems can say we finally have proven to ourselves that we have a deterrent. If NMD fails miserably (a virual certainty), then a dangerous, expensive political tool of the GOP turns to ashes.

On edit: Took out calling the Bushists "morons." Took out calling Bush "Junior." This post is intended to be a serious discussion rather than a rant.