Breaking Ground in Shemya
A first step for missile defense.

By NR’s John J. Miller & Ramesh Ponnuru
April 6, 2001 12:15 p.m.

he Bush administration has not yet decided whether to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, which forbids the construction of a truly national missile-defense system. A withdrawal announcement would be a difficult moment diplomatically — Russia will howl, China will shriek, and many of our European allies will grumble — but all seem to sense the announcement may come. That's why many European governments have toned down some of their anti-missile-defense rhetoric in recent months.

The treaty allows America to withdraw on six months' notice. But the administration can do something right now, even under the ABM rules, to advance the prospects of missile defense: Begin to build an x-band radar on the remote Aleutian island of Shemya, in Alaska.

Shemya is a forbidding environment lashed by high winds and cold seas. To complicate matters, the island has no natural harbor. The construction season there lasts only a few months in the summer, when the ground thaws. That period begins in May or June, and lasts no later than September. In order to make full use of this time and not suffer delays, the government now must begin scheduling barges to transport equipment. But there's been no announcement along these lines, despite plenty of speculation.

The limited missile-defense system grudgingly endorsed by the Clinton administration includes 100 interceptors based in Alaska, and aided by the Shemya radar. This system would be well-positioned to defend America from an attack by North Korea, but it is not a national missile-defense system in any sense. It defends a portion of the United States rather than all of it, and only against a handful of missiles launched eastward from Asia.

The Shemya radar, however, is an important ingredient for any system — whether it's the small one based in Alaska or something more vigorous. The projected completion date for the limited Alaska system already has slipped from 2005 to 2006, even though North Korea presumably will have missiles capable of delivering warheads to the continental United States in about two years.

It's not entirely clear that failing to make a decision about Shemya now will cost the system another year, but it's also hard to see the advantage in waiting any further. The groundbreaking should begin as soon as frozen Shemya's ground can break.

PET PEEVE, PT. 2
Last fall, New Republic owner and Al Gore fanatic Martin Peretz became so desperate to say something nasty about George W. Bush that he criticized the man for owning a dog named Spot. "[D]o you believe it?" sneered Peretz, going on to describe Bush as "an ordinary man." We in turn pointed out that Gore has a dog named Daisy, which is an equally uninspired pet name. (To read our bulletin on the Spot-Daisy controversy, go here: http://www.nationalreview.com/daily/nr111700.shmtl. It's the second item.)

Now comes the very sad news that Bush's cat has run away. The Bushes had given him to a friend in Los Angeles before leaving Austin (they were afraid he'd claw the White House furniture), and he's been gone for a few weeks. To make matters worse, the cat has an excellent name: Ernie.

As ABCNews.com explained, "Bush grew fond of the six-toed feline, began to feed him, and eventually made him part of the Lone Star State's First Family. The Bush family decided to name the cat 'Ernie' after the author Ernest Hemingway, who famously kept a six-toed cat."

What a great cat name! It's literary! It's light years more clever than naming your dog Daisy! And taking in a stray cat is clearly an act of compassionate conservatism.

Perhaps Ernie's disappearance is just the start of a long trek to Washington, D.C. He could be a feline Granny D. He's clearly a survivor. As Bush explained on the campaign trail, "Sometimes you may find yourself up in a tree, wet and cold. But if you just hang in there and never give up, things will get better for you, just like they did for Ernie."

ON THE SITE
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