The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Web site last week announced the emplacement of the third ballistic missile interceptor at Fort Greely, Alaska. The interceptors are designed to defend “all 50 states,” and the official initial operational capability of the defense system will come sometime later this year.

What the MDA doesn’t say is that the interceptors can only defend against missiles from northeast Asia that take the shortest path to the United States and don’t have decently designed decoys to hide the real warheads. Missiles launched from anywhere else will be unstoppable, and aluminized balloon decoys can easily divert the interceptor from its target warheads. Meanwhile, the MDA and its contractors ignore many other weaknesses in the system, including the complete lack of realistic tests.

This is yet another case of wishful thinking and self-deception (at least) of the current administration, which seems to believe that its strong determination to protect the U.S. will make it happen.

The administration has no lack of will, it just doesn’t pay any attention to inconvenient facts.

Al Bersbach, Vienna