In President George W. Bush's first phase of his "missle sheild" plan, ships assigned to the Navy’s 7th fleet are laying the ground work for a
system to detect and intercept ballistic missiles launched by “rogue nations.”
www.msnbc.msn.com
“We are on track,” Vice Admiral Jonathan Greenert, commander of the 7th Fleet, told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday aboard the USS
Coronado, which is based just south of Tokyo. “We will be ready to conduct the mission when assigned.”
‘Highest priority’
The deployment will be the first in a controversial program that is high on President Bush’s defense agenda. Bush cleared the way to build the system
two years ago by withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which banned ship-based missile defenses.
He said protecting America from ballistic missiles was “my highest priority as commander in chief, and the highest priority of my administration.”
The project — likened to hitting a bullet with a bullet, only at three times the speed — is exceedingly complex, prompting many critics to argue that
it will never be reliable or effective. It is also expensive, with an estimated price tag of $51 billion over the next five years.
Even so, the missile threat is hard to deny.
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Reports cliam the project will be completed over the next several years. Tensions and questions have been rising about the Range of North Koreas
ballistic missles. A report of a mushroom cloud in North Korea surfaced in the middle of the month, in which they claimed was not caused by a nulcear
explosion. Secretary of State Colin Powell confirmed that unusual activity had recently been detected at some of North Korea's atomic sites, but
said there was no concrete evidence the North's secretive communist regime was preparing for its first nuclear test explosion.
I am still looking for information as to a layout of this plan. It seems to me that N. Korea could be a far greater danger than Iran in the United
States' eyes. Iran, Yesterday tested a ballistic missle which is capable of reaching Israel, and Troops fighting in Iraq.
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ATS Related Discussion's
U.S. destroyers deploying off N. Korea
[edit on 25-9-2004 by TrickmastertricK]
