Rumsfeld Unsure of Ability To Intercept Korean Missiles

This is from the Washington Post:

FORT GREELY, Alaska, Aug. 27 -- After his first look inside the nerve center of the U.S. missile defense system, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Sunday sounded a note of caution about expectations that interceptors poised in 10 underground silos here would work in the event of a missile attack by North Korea.

Asked at a news conference whether he believed the missile shield was ready for use against a North Korean missile like the one test-fired unsuccessfully on July 4, Rumsfeld said he would not be fully convinced until the multibillion-dollar defense system has undergone more complete and realistic testing.

"A full end-to-end" demonstration is needed, Rumsfeld said, "where we actually put all the pieces" of the highly complex and far-flung missile defense system together and see whether it would succeed in destroying a warhead in flight.

I just have one question to ask Mr. Rumsfeld--why the frack did we waste hundreds of billions of dollars on this "star wars" missile defense system when you are telling us that this boondoggle defense system will not even shoot down a North Korean nuclear missile? And if the United States will have trouble shooting down a North Korean missile, did you expect it to be a cakewalk shooting down a Chinese or Russian missile--how about missiles? But, I guess the Republican Party has to look after its corporate defense contractors--wasting billions of the American taxpayer's money to defend the stock shares of defense companies, and make the CEOs of those companies rich. Mr. Rumsfeld, is that the real reason for our missile defense system--to defend the military industrial complex from charges of waste and fraud?