I am not an alarmist and yet I find myself alarmed by the upcoming Bush-Putin meeting, intending to abrogate the 1972 Ballistic Missile Treaty. Thus the pair of them clear the way for the discredited Star Wars development and concentrate on China as a new Cold War Two adversary.

Let me hasten to advise you that I am no Bush-basher (well, maybe that's a stretch), although along with James Jeffords I have much reason to be. I have learned to pick my fights and the current threat overrides all others in my opinion.

I am old enough to have witnessed the mutual waste of resources attendant to arms races, not the least of which is neglected infrastructure and social progress on both sides. Plus, we heavily armed a bunch of the world's maniacs during those years.

Even at that, we did not defeat the Soviet Union---the wheels merely came off a system that never worked.

The practical side of me, when I can't figure out what government is up to, tends to ask who profits and who loses---where the money goes.

Those who profit in a Star Wars-CWII environment will be those dear to Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld twenty-five years ago and dear to them yet; Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, TRW/Raytheon and their like, supported by a nearly endless slipstream of subcontractors---a lobbying group of unparalleled proportion.

Get out of the Archives and read what Jim's writing today