Lost behind the concerns about the Supreme Court and other issues and pushed to Page 4 of a recent issue of the Tribune is a debate that could affect U.S. military spending and foreign policy for decades to come. The Bush administration is proposing to fund the deployment of a space-based Anti-Ballistic Missile system called Brilliant Pebbles.
The most important problem with this system is that it is in clear violation of the 1972 ABM treaty that this country signed with the Soviet Union. There are numerous other flaws in this strategy, the most glaring of which is that it probably won`t work. The reliability and usefulness of any SDI system has been called into question by groups of experts from the Union of Concerned Scientists to the neutral and prestigious American Physical Society. At the very least, SDI is a wasteful use of limited military dollars. The House has moved to cut SDI spending and drop all funding of Brilliant Pebbles. The Senate is currently debating the issue. People concerned with the strength of our military and wise use of our tax dollars should closely watch this hidden but important issue.
