Obama Critics Say Plan To Counter North Korean Threat Was Long Overdue

摘要

Missile defense supporters, many of whom have been highly critical of U.S. President Barack's strategy in this area, welcomed the newly unveiled White House plan to expand the existing U.S. territorial shield but described it as a long-overdue course correction. The centerpiece of the plan, outlined by U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at a March 15 Pentagon press conference, is an increase in the number of ground-based interceptors installed along the U.S. West Coast from the current 30 to 44 by 2017. The $1 billion expansion, prompted in large part by North Korea's recent satellite launch and nuclear test, effectively reinstates a plan by the administration of former President George W. Bush that Obama scrapped after taking office. "I strongly support the decision to increase the number of ground based interceptors in our missile defense system," U.S. Rep. Douglas Lamborn (R-Colo.), co-chairman of the House Missile Defense Caucus, said in a statement issued shortly after Hagel's announcement. "... The decision to increase ground based interceptors should be only the first step toward rectifying the cuts in missile defense that the Obama Administration has made in the last four years."