All these bewildering decisions disturb members of both houses of Congress. Along with Congressman Turner, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) warned against budget cuts to the IB program in favor of design experiments. He said, “We have gone from a bird in the hand for two in the bush …” Other fiscal watchdogs are alarmed, too. In an open letter to Congress, the National Taxpayers Union, plus five other non-partisan groups, warned of the risks to our national security that the White House’s missile budget poses.
The United States must supplement the ground-based missile systems in California and Alaska with Aegis and an adequate number of the SM-3/1Bs, to defend us from North Korea and communist China. We need the same defense on the Gulf Coast against Iran’s missiles in Venezuela, and also on the East Coast to shield us from Iranian EMP missiles launched from close in-shore naval or merchant ships.
President Obama should tell the Europeans to pay for their own defense, and then fix his missile budget. He must protect America first. Otherwise, the next blackout might not be caused by a derecho, but by an EMP missile.
Chet Nagle is a Naval Academy graduate, a former senior Defense Department official, and the author of Iran Covenant.
