The GOP has a plan to create a missile defense shield for the East Coast, designed to prevent a nuclear attack from Iran — all Stars Wars-style.
The Hill posted exclusive details.
The Republican proposal calls for the East Coast site, which would be the third in the country, to be operational by the beginning of 2016.
Democrats contend the total cost would be $4 billion. Republicans counter that the price tag would be half of that amount.
“This is a political move,” said Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), who intends to introduce an amendment Wednesday to strip the provision from the defense authorization bill. “Every time the election comes around, the Republicans run out a national security agenda.”
It is unclear where the Obama administration stands on the matter. A White House spokesman declined to comment.
Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Republicans in Congress slammed Obama on missile defense after his “hot mic” moment in March, in which Obama told then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he needed “flexibility” until after the Nov. 6 election.
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The GOP Star Wars crowd might want to be careful what it wishes for before they tie themselves in knots. Before we need a defense against Iran, Iran needs intercontinental ballistic missiles. Currently, there aren't that many people who have ICBM technology but connect the dots to the 'free market'. There is a nascent private space industry working on suborbital rockets. Because they hope to take people into space and back, these rockets require pin-point navigation equipment. Certain segments of the same GOP Star Wars crowd are all in favor of private companies competing with NASA. Think Iran might be interested in missiles capable of going suborbital and landing on dime? Or North Korea?
No problem with the missiles. We have defense contractors who would be happy to sell them to Iran as would several other countries like North Korea and maybe even China. All part of the never ending dynamic of the arms race.
anyone see and recall the movie "spies like us"? yes it was a chevy chase/dan akroyd comedy about decoys that actually beat the odds (a decent movie for an 80's flick). but the major plot line is that in order to test one of these "star wars"-like systems, they sent the CIA to launch an actual russian missile towards the US. and the system missed, which almost led to a nuclear war until the decoys actually reprogrammed the missile on the fly and saved the US, and the contractors who set up the test as well as the CIA and generals were arrested.
well, here's something that could make their star wars LI plan go up in smoke: show them that clip from the movie where the missile was fired, the anti-missle system missed, and everyone freaks out as a response. then at the end ask "is this outrageous plot line what the GOP missile defense system might actually do? and what happens if they do this?"
i know it's a stretch, but what does everyone think?
Freakin bunch of fools.. How about taking care of our mexico problem before we worry about the other side of the world..