Missile Defense -- help, please!

[eyesroll]

I got into a bit of a debate with my moderate-Right co-worker about missile defense (specifically Star Wars); this stemmed from my mention that that was the administration's biggest defense priority prior to 9/11.

He seems to think space-based missile defense is a great idea, to protect us from evil and so forth (he referred me to missilethreat.com).

I'm trying to counter with the basics -- it's not good science, it's politically motivated, it's defending us against a Cold War threat, not a current one, it violates treaties, etc., but I'm having trouble finding citations. (My usually good Google skills aren't helping today.)

Anyone have a good resource for why Star Wars is a distracting waste of money/time at best, and potentially catastrophic at worst? Thanks!

[swag]

1. best source on missile defense

www.cdi.org

happy reading

[zulchzulu]

2. Union of Concerned Scientists has a great video on NMD flaws

http://stream.realimpact.net/rihurl.ram?file=realimpact/ucs/sdi_animation/ucs_mds.smi

More here:
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_security/missile_defense/index.cfm

[rockymountaindem]

3. The American Physical Society

which is the national group of physics scientists and engineers (it's huge, has a reputation the size of a blimp, everyone listens to them), has said that most of the plans involving missile defense won't work from a physical standpoint. They had a comment on a recent missile defense plan...

If the defense were space based, the defense satellites could be easily confused by decoys released from the missile. So, the geniuses at the WH decided that it would be better to intercept the missile with other missiles launched from Alaska before the North Korean missile could leave the atmosphere, therefore eliminating the threat from decoys. According to the American Physical Society, that would be physically impossible, because the defense missile would have to go faster than the space shuttle (like 80,000 mph or something like that).

[Dudley_DUright]

4. The APS has only formally studied the feasibility of boost phase

missile defense. The study, published in Physics Today, can be found at the following link:

http://www.physicstoday.com/vol-57/iss-1/p30.html

Another good resource for info on all aspects of missile defense is at the Union of Concerned Scientists website:

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_security/missile_defense/index.cfm

(BTW, I am a member of both organizations but never realized we were blimp-like. I guess I need to go on a diet. :-) )