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Rush had this little exchange between Hillary Clinton and Rummy tonight. She was questioning the go ahead of our missile defense system. Rummy explained, patiently as if to a child, how one move ahead on challenging projects.
Hillary Clinton: It strikes me a little odd that we would deploy a system that hasn't succeeded and expect that to serve a deterrent value. So I don't understand the sequencing of this.Donald Rumsfeld: I think the word "deploying" needs to be calibrated. What's being done here is not a pure test and not a pure deployment, but deploying the pieces of the capability that will evolve into an early missile defense capability, and the way to do that, according to the people who are working on this -- and I agree and subscribe to the concept -- is to get it in the ground in a modest way, work the problems, keep testing, and as that capability evolves, you will begin to have the early stages of a missile defense capability. If you didn't do anything until you could do everything, you probably wouldn't do anything.
This is the way airplanes evolved. It's the way most -- it's certainly the way satellite systems evolved and it seems to me that they're proceeding on a measured, not a hell-bent-for-leather approach, but a measured approach to a complicated problem which, frankly, given what we read about Iran and what we read about North Korea, ought to be reassuring to us that we're doing what we're doing, and that we're at least on a track to have that capability in the period ahead, assuming we can continue to work out the kinks and the difficulties.
As a techie who has dealt, and continues to deal with, technological challenges, you always go forward with what can CAN do and know and learn as you go. As you learn you expand what you can do and what you know.
Posted by Ted at February 18, 2005 8:09 PM