Pork, Politics and Star wars

When the presidents chief advisor, Karl Rove, has no expertise on anything but politics it should be obvious that politics is a primary driver when it comes to decision making. It should also be no surprise that in an administration full of corporate criminals from the defense industry pork barrel projects would also be a driver. Both of these come together in the bastard son of Ronald Reagan's Star Wars missile defense program.
Star Wars' Political Bull's-Eye

A Pentagon panel of outside rocketry experts was too polite to use the phrase "pie in the sky," but they might as well have in excoriating the rush to deploy an unworkable antimissile system in time for President Bush's re-election campaign. Although clearly bedeviled by test failures and unproven components, the first antimissile stations in this fantastic $130 billion-plus windfall for the defense industry were officially deployed on the West Coast last fall - just in time to cover Mr. Bush's vow in 2000 to have the system up in four years.

Predictably, the re-election was soon followed by more embarrassing test failures along this Potemkin battlement, and the Pentagon asked independent experts to examine the program. According to a Washington Post report on the classified study, the experts concluded that the rush to deployment only compounded long-running technical problems. The badly flawed system remains unable to detect or destroy an incoming missile despite the continuing billions spent on complex problems with booster rocket, radar and satellite systems.

Most scientists outside of the defense industry said that Reagan's Star Wars missile defense would never work. It still won't work and now it's not even addressing the real threat. Billions being spent on what is nothing more than corporate welfare while the security of the nations ports goes under funded.

Cross posted at Random Fate