Bush criticizes missile-shield opponents

[Nambe]

RIDLEY PARK, Pa. (AP)

President Bush promoted his administration's plans to build an anti-missile system Tuesday, suggesting that the program's opponents are jeopardizing the country's safety.

Bush did not refer specifically to Democratic rival John Kerry, who has indicated he would rein in spending on the project. ..

The Boeing plant where Bush spoke manufactures the CH-47 Chinook helicopter and the V-22 Osprey. The $40 billion Osprey program has been plagued by design flaws and other problems that led to crashes killing 23 troops in 2000. A redesign of the aircraft has solved or eased those problems, the Pentagon says.

Bush took a tour in a helicopter assembly building. He climbed inside a Chinook 47 helicopter that was being refitted and, at one point, used a wrench to tighten or loosen a screw.

Join 49 Admirals and Generals to Stop Missile Defense

[neonplaque]

1. "used a wrench to tighten or loosen a screw" Bahaha n/t

[MidwestTransplant]

4. I'm sure a mechanic went back and fixed it

at least I hope so

[Ripley]

6. He should have used the tool on his head...

Since he has a few loose screws. Doh!

[IA_Seth]

5. Thats our Leader

And God blesses him!

yee fuckin ha!

[TahitiNut]

16. Here's a photo of that screw. (It's pretty tight.)

[bogey18]

19. I disagree - there are at least 4 more good turns left on that baby

[chiburb]

2. He tightened a screw with a wrench?

We're screwed.

[NickB79]

22. Good catch

A wrench? Send the kid back to 7th grade shop class.

[Poiuyt]

3. Condi Rice was to speak about missile shield on 9/11

I can't believe he's bringing that up

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. These people are sick

I tell you... sick.

Am I to believe that the terrorists are working on nuclear missile delivery systems now... or has the admin realized that they have pissed off way too many people who already have them? Just wondering how that works......

[girl gone mad]

8. Stem cells are a pie in the sky project..

that probably will never amount to anything, but the missile defense program deserves hundreds of billions of tax dollars because it is going to work,, no matter how many tests it fails and no matter how many brilliant scientists say otherwise.

You see, God tells him these things.

[Rose Siding]

14. That's a very good comparison.

[jpak]

9. This is all a f**king LIE

Bush claims he has deployed an operational BMD system.

NOT TRUE!!!!!!

This system isn't even out of its initial testing phase, and no operational tests have been conducted.

and most importantly....

The X-band radars required for tracking and intercept HAVE NOT BEEN DEPLOYED!

The missile sitting in that silo in Alaska is USELESS!!!!!!

[lnmike]

10. Star Wars, recipe for ruin

Lots of scientists have pointed out technical obstacles to strategic missile defense which some of them say would render it impossible. I'm not a scientist, but I think these problems might be solvable in principle.

- BUT -

A missile defense system capable of stopping significant numbers of missiles would likely be so staggeringly expensive that the only way to divert enough resources to make it effective would be to turn the country into a military dictatorship.

[scarletwoman]

13. It's a con job. The purpose is OFFENSE, not "defense".

That's why bushco, et al are so hot to keep this funded. It's part of the strategy for achieving "Full-spectrum dominance", which includes the militarization of space.

The problem with SDI is not that's it's a "stupid idea", the problem is that people don't realize what the REAL purpose is. It's NOT "missile defense", it's military dominance. Orbiting lasers will be trained on targets on earth, or other orbiting satellites (belonging to allegedly "hostile" nations), NOT on mythical "missiles".

Read up here: http://www.space4peace.org/

sw

[frylock]

11. what we need is a box cutter defense system..

fuggin moran. :eyes:

[Disturbed]

12. MIC must be fed.

It is essential that MIC gets it's share of the Middle Class tax dollars.

[louis-t]

15. Get it through your thick heads morans

SDI didn't work 20 years ago, doesn't work now, no evidence it can work in the future 100%. Best case scenario (except for Bushco Dept. of Lies report) is about 35% accuracy. Would you buy a car that only worked 35% of the time?

[stickdog]

18. For how many hundreds of billions? (nt)

[tabasco]

25. Think thousands of billions.

- Star Wars is one of the greatest weapons against the American taxpayer. It is deployed in order to starve the beast, destroy social security and medicare, and to enrich corporate friends. Anyone who has taken a serious look at the cost/benefit of this program cannot conclude anything other than Star Wars is pure government corruption.
- There is a reason the Russians were so accomodating in allowing Bush to scrap the ABM Treaty. They know SDI doesn't work and even if it did it is easily deafeated. The Russians will gladly watch the Bush cabal spend America into oblivion.
- Star Wars is a net negative for our security. It diverts enormous amounts of taxpayer money from what should be MUCH higher priorities.

[Hobarticus]

17. "Lesse...lefty-tighty, righty-loosey..."

Most work he's done all week.

[DemoTex]

20. V-22 Osprey

I've actually seen it fly. Scary! Wilmington, Delaware. However, as a former airline captain, a trained accident investigator, and a military pilot with 250+ missions in Vietnam, I will accept the V-22 when Rummy and the Joint-Chiefs-of-Staff take a ride around the patch in it. In other words, NEVER! It is the ultimate "widow-maker." I know that, you know that, and they know that.

[Thor_MN]

23. Would you fly any airframe, knowing that * had touched a tool to it?

I'll admit to having bought lottery tickets, but if lightening strikes there, you get rich - not dead.

Re: the story, he may have used an Allen wrench on a cap head screw, but more likely the writer didn't have a clue.

[EST]

21. All that invective (sad smile)

We should remember... none of this is Bush...he's not even bright as Ronnie Raygun. His masters are running this; he ain't dreaming this crap up. It's a setup job. The only thing that's saving our bacon right now is the fact tha Iraq wasn't a walkover. Had it been, the crazy bastards would have gotten their bases in the middle east and we would now be invading Iran, if that weren't completed already.This whole plan was set up years ago, with enough room for changing circumstances. Why do you suppose the terrible attacks began on Clinton even before he won in '92, and raged on for his whole term? It threw somewhat of a monkey wrench in their plans, although some stuff was still being achieved. There ain't no Bush in this world bright enough to have created this; much brighter minds and stronger personalities are in charge.
All these "programs" are a mere smokescreen. When you own the world, spending 40 billion is just markers--useless IOU's to titillate the masses.

[stevebreeze]

24. even if it worked it can't work

That is even if missile defense was capable of hitting a missile shot at us it will not make us one whit safer. Any nation that shot a missile at us conveniently leaves a trail back to it's launch site. No country could launch a missile or a few missiles without the expectation that we would annihilate the sender of the missiles. What leader of a country would launch missiles knowing their country would cease to exist?

How many countries have a capability to launch missiles at us? only two, China and Russia. Russia has more then enough missiles to overwhelm any system we could currently deploy. China has only a couple of dozen nukes. It could easily deploy more and is likely to do so if they feel our "missile defense shield" has any hope of working.


This is and has always been about feeding the military industrial complex, nothing more and nothing less.

[Nordic]

26. Hey Bush -- STOP CORPORATE WELFARE as we know it

Sorry, was I yelling there?

I have a real problem with this missile defense bullshit.

It's pure, unadulterated corporate welfare, and worse, it is designed to NEVER END. It's a black hole of negative money that will suck our tax dollars into a vortex forever and ever.

Simply because the one way to overpower a missile defense shield is to, well, send more junk into its space than it's designed to detect. That's all you have to do. Doesn't have to be missiles. It can be old car hoods, kitchen sinks, whatever. Once you overwhelm it, you send up the missiles and KABLOOEY.

So, gosh, then the system will have to be upgraded, now, won't it?! How perfect! "Hey, folks, we're gonna need another few BILLION dollars to upgrade our little system over here! If you dont' pony up, you're a goddamn TRAITOR!"

Good God, I'm ready to move to Canada