Friday, February 25, 2005

Further Missile Defense

This was never going to happen for Bush. Three simple reasons:
  • We don't have the money. The US would have to spend it all.
  • We'd want control. The US wouldn't want to spend all the money and not have control, while we wouldn't (or shouldn't) leave control of critical military technology in the hands of another government. Inherent contradiction.
  • Paul Martin wants to be reelected. If he had a majority, he could afford to play loose with this issue. He doesn't, but wants one.

More broadly, the US doesn't even want our help because it would make the system work better. They want our help to be able to say that it isn't simply a Republican pipe-dream. Bush faces a similar problem in selling his Social Security mess - he wants to label it "bipartisan" but can't find a single treacherous democrat to side with him. When they want your help more for PR than for practicality, your best bet is to run in the opposite direction. How many black Republicans are there in the Federal government?

(crickets chirping)

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