Fred Kaplan :: Must we spend another US$80B before we admit missile defense doesn't work?

What Paul Martin is trying to avoid wasting millions (billions?) on without aggravating the elephant.

Let's say you're buying the most complicated computer system ever devised. It's still in the early stages. The payments are costing a fortune. The software's riddled with bugs. Some software hasn't been written yet. Several scientists doubt the thing will ever work properly. Finally, just this week, you couldn't even get it to switch on.
Now let's say you're the program manager of the Pentagon's missile-defense agency.
But I repeat myself.

The key point being:

A question for the overseers in Congress: Is it time now for a serious look at this program? Missile defense consumed $10.7 billion of this year's military budget—far more than any other weapon system.
About $80 billion has been spent on it since Ronald Reagan stepped up research and development for the mission 20 years ago. Another $80 billion is scheduled to be spent before the decade is out. It may be time to ask: Why?

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