[Newspoetry] Achilles' Heel

[Robert Porter]

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/27/international/27MISS.html?pagewanted=print
 
August 27, 2001


Achilles' Heel in Missile Plan: Crude Weapons


By Newton Bigelow (Associated Poets)

Dateline Madrid--

President Bush's new favorite toy may be useless against the types of
weapons which rogue nations would most likely fire at the United States.
The trouble seems to be that our Missile Defense System is more comfortable
when aimed at the kind of high-tech, super-accurate weapons that we would
build, rather than the clunky, thrown-together missiles that our enemies can
afford to manufacture.  Rather than spinning like tops to ensure precise
targeting, these low-budget missile would tend to tumble, making them far
less accurate.

Of course, when nuclear weapons are involved, accuracy isn't always the
first priority.
 
"If you fire at New York, it means you might not get Central Park," a
federal weapons expert said. "You might get the Jersey side or Queens. But
no matter what, you're going to get enough of the metro area that New
Yorkers will be unhappy."

A spokesman for the Bush administration pointed out that New Yorkers always
seem to be unhappy about something.  "I mean, really, there's just no
pleasing those people, you know?"

Critics say the antimissile program is ignoring an intractable problem.
"Tumbling is a terribly big deal," said Dr. Theodore A. Postol, an arms
expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology critical of some
antimissile systems. "It's totally unpredictable, a wild card. It makes it
much harder to know what to look for."

The same Bush spokesman, who refused to give his name, downplayed the
signifigance of tumbling.  "Forget Tumbling!", he replied, "I'm sick of
hearing about tumbling!  Look, if those bastards even manage to get
something off the ground, it'll be a miracle.  We'll probably have to leak
some of our technology to them, just so they can appear to present a
plausible threat.  If they can get one damn missile over here, I won't care
if it tumbles, wobbles, or dance a ****ing jig.  I'll be down at the DOD,
swigging champagne and kissing everybody in sight!"

Dr. Nira Schwartz, a senior engineer in 1995 and 1996 at TRW, a military
contractor, was asked to do computer simulations in which a kill vehicle was
tested against 200 types of enemy decoys and warheads, including tumblers.
The kill vehicle always failed to distinguish between tumbling warheads and
decoys, Dr. Schwartz said in an interview.

By this time, the Bush spokesman had sobered up enough to realize he was
talking to a member of the press, and refused further comment.

He also refused to pick up the tab.