Anti-missile sysem is a sound defense idea

Hawai`i and Alaska are completely vulnerable to missile attacks from North Korea. This is the premise of the nation's newest military debate involving an anti-missile net that would protect all 50 states from missile attacks.

The $6.6 billion proposal would, if passed, commit us to an anti-missile system that would detect and shoot down anemy missiles.

The proposal is a sound, if expensive, idea. While the United States is a defense giant, there is still the risk of an attack from rogue countries like North Korea, which often have unstable leaders prone to unpredictable and unwarranted acts of belligerence.

North Korea faces an increasingly unpredictable future, and has already fired a Taepoe Dong missile over Japanese airspace. If such a missile were to reach Hawai`i, Honolulu could suffer extreme damage.

As the old adage goes, it's better to be safe than sorry. And at a time when the economy is doing well, this amount of defense spending is warranted, particularly because it is aimed at the actual defense of our nation, in addition to helping the local economy.