FEASIBILITY: BUSH NMD POLICY IS CONCEPTUALLY FLAWED

BUSH NMD POLICY IS FULL OF CONTRADICTIONS

The Guardian (London) February 6, 2001 SECTION: Guardian Leader Pages, Pg. 19 HEADLINE: Leading article: Flawed defences: Bush's missile plan may explode in his face //VT2002acsln

The contradictions and paradoxes inherent in US missile defence plans are proliferating faster than the weapons of mass destruction the Americans seek to neutralise. Donald Rumsfeld says the Bush administration has a constitutional and moral duty to build new missile systems. But the American defence secretary, speaking in Munich at the weekend, did not elaborate on the morality (or wisdom) of a superpower tearing up arms control treaties and appearing to intimidate weaker nations with its advanced weaponry.

LACK OF OPERATIONAL PLANNING AND VISION DOOM NMD IN THE EYES OF ALLIES AND OTHERS

The Guardian (London) February 6, 2001 SECTION: Guardian Leader Pages, Pg. 19 HEADLINE: Leading article: Flawed defences: Bush's missile plan may explode in his face //VT2002acsln

Mr Rumsfeld asks for European support and assures Russia and China that they are not under threat. But he does not say exactly what is proposed; will it be sea-based, land-based, space-based or all three? Nor does he identify the source or scale of the supposedly urgent, emerging threat, other than vague mutterings about "outlaw regimes".