 President George Bush's controversial plan to establish a missile defence system in eastern Europe could be scuppered next week if Congress votes to block funding. The Senate appears ready to join the House in cutting from the defence budget the millions Mr Bush requested to fund US missile bases in Poland and the Czech Republic. The president would have to use his veto to go ahead but that would put the whole defence budget in peril.
| Don't worry, the Japanese will buy it lock, stock and barrel. |
Congress is seeking ways to reduce the 2008 defence budget that has already ballooned because of the billions needed for Mr Bush's Iraq "surge". The House voted last month to cut the $40m (£19.9m) needed to begin preparations to establish bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The Senate armed forces committee, which has been looking in detail at the missile plan, has come out against it not only on cost grounds but because it is sceptical about the technology. Mr Bush wants to place 10 interceptor missiles in silos in Poland and a radar tracking system in the Czech Republic. He insists they would be aimed not against Moscow but Iran, but Mr Putin has not been persuaded.
| He doesn't need to be, but tell that to the Dhimmicrats. |
The Senate committee said that work should be delayed until the stand-off is resolved.
| A convenient dodge, since it give Vlad veto power. |
The Bush administration, in evidence to a committee hearing, argued that it would be dangerous to delay because Iran may be further forward in developing its alleged nuclear weapon programme than the rest of the world realises. But the committee's conclusion, reported in the Washington Post yesterday, said: "There is uncertainty about whether Iran will have such long-range missiles, or nuclear warheads that could work on such missiles, by 2015."
| And they couldn't possibly be wrong. |
The committee said that the US missile "has not yet been developed...and is not currently planned to be flight-tested until 2010". It also said that going ahead without Nato, which has not yet decided whether to participate, would cost the US an estimated $4bn up to 2013. |