RIDLEY PARK, Pa. — A day after tussling with Democrats over the future stationing of U.S. troops, President Bush focused on a years-old national security conflict Tuesday, charging that opponents of a satellite-guided missile defense system were "living in the past."
Bush has long backed such a system, which some critics deride as a technological boondoggle that will prove unworkable. But during a stop at a Boeing Co. defense plant near Philadelphia, Bush invoked the issue as a tangible difference on defense policy separating him from his Democratic challenger, Sen. John F. Kerry.
Engineers from Boeing, one of three contractors working on the $53-billion program, recently installed the first interceptor missile into a silo at Ft. Greely, Alaska, Bush told the crowd of plant employees and campaign supporters.
"It's the beginning of a missile defense system that was envisioned by [former President] Ronald Reagan -- a system necessary to protect us against the threats of the 21st century," he said. "We want to continue to perfect this system, so we say to those tyrants who believe they can blackmail America and the free world, 'You fire, we're going to shoot it down.' "
Opponents of the program don't understand the threats that lie ahead, he said.
"They're living in the past," said Bush, who campaigned in 2000 as a supporter of missile defense and has doubled the project's funding despite objections from many Democrats. "We're living in the future. We're going to do what's necessary to protect this country."
Kerry has said he does not oppose a missile defense system in theory, but has questioned the priority the Bush administration has put on it. Kerry has said other steps -- such as adding 40,000 troops to the military and improving U.S. intelligence-gathering -- are more important to combat the threats facing America.
Rand Beers, the Massachusetts senator's top national security advisor, accused the White House on Tuesday of a "near obsession" with developing a missile defense program.
"John Kerry believes an effective missile defense is crucial to our national security strategy," Beers said. "But John Kerry also understands the importance of facing our most pressing national security threats while continuing to develop and deploy a national missile defense which we know will work."
