Bush missile defense plan impractical and misguided

President Bush's recent meetings with European leaders andRussia's President Vladimir Putin again placed Bush's proposedmissile defense program at center stage. This former B-52 crew chiefand son of a Vietnam veteran thinks this was a bad idea whenPresident Ronald Reagan first proposed it, and it's still a bad idea.

The technical and political problems for this estimated $60billion to $300 billion weapons system are many. On the technicalside, any missile defense system is fairly easily overcome withrelatively cheap electronic countermeasures and decoys such as low-tech, low-cost devises like Mylar balloons, flares and chaff. That'snot to say we shouldn't spend money for …