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Nukes and missile defense    [ Politics ]

It's official, North Korea has nukes and the Russians have an operational ICBM that our Star Wars missile defense program can't shoot down.   At least the Bush administration is proposing cuts in the $10 billion/year program.   Gee, backing out of the ABM treaty hasn't really helped matters.

The real problem here is that by spending so much international credibility on pursuing WMDs in Iraq, the Bush administration now will have a much tougher time convincing allies and other countries to cooperate with any response to North Korea.   Like I've said before, Iraq posed a very small threat compared to the one that North Korea presents.   The DPRK has already sold nuclear and missile technology to Libya, Pakistan and other rogue regimes, and it's not a terrible stretch of the imagination to think that al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups could buy or otherwise obtain these sorts of devices.

In short, I don't think the Bush administration's policy has made the U.S., our allies or the rest of the world much safer, despite their statements to the contrary.