The silos are already in the ground, a hundred miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. Yesterday, President Bush announced that they will be filled, by 2004, with the weapons of a new national missile defense system. A modest version of the grand Star Wars dream of Ronald reagan. Not yet a speace defense shield, knocking nuclear-tipped missiles out of the highest heavens. But ten American missiles, intended to knock down enemy missiles in flight, before they reach the united states. And more to come, in California, on ships at sea, in space. Star wars was fiercely debunked by critics as a fool’s errand, technically and strategically. So, have circumstanceschanged, with North Korea, Iran and Iraq all chasing nukes? Or just the triumph of the true believers?

Guests:

George Lewis, Associate Director of the Security Studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;Lisbeth Gronlund, Co-Director of Global Security program and Senior Scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists;Jack Spencer Defense Analyst at Heritage Foundation