MISSILE DEFENSE CRITICS should check their facts. Uzi Rubin, founder and first director of the Israel Missile Defense Organization, responds to George Lewis and Theodore Postol’s paper "A Flawed and Dangerous U.S. Missile Defense Plan,” in which Lewis and Postol argue that simple countermeasures can easily defeat the defensive interceptor missile.

[Countermeasures] are and will remain a real hazard for any military system, be it missile defense, air defense, tank defense or ship defense. There is nothing special in missile defense that makes it more sensitive to countermeasures than any other tool of war, from bow and arrow (interlinked shields) to RPG (reactive armor). The "Wizard War" between weapons and countermeasures is age-old and will continue indefinitely; the winner will be the side that keeps one step ahead of its adversary. In the minds of the "countermeasure culture" proponents, it is the U.S. that is always the loser. It is left for the talent of genuine experts in the U.S. defense industries to prove them wrong.

As I commented here, an imperfect defense is still better than no defense. And an imperfect defense can be improved.