Why Leave Ourselves Vulnerable?

Conn Carroll / June 02, 2009

Earlier this year Secretary of Defense Robert Gates released a defense budget request that cut missile defense by $1.4 billion. But that was before Iran launched a two-stage ballistic missile and North Korea detonated a nuclear device. These facts seem to have changed some thinking in Washington, including Secretary Gates’. The AP reports:

Gates said the missile tests by North Korea over the past week appear to have attracted more support on Capitol Hill for missile interceptors.
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He said he’s requested nearly $1 billion in the 2010 fiscal budget to develop and maintain those missile interceptors. But the Pentagon’s spending plan halts a planned expansion of the missile defense system at Fort Greely.

Gates called that “not a forever decision.” (more…)