Anyone who thinks that National Missile Defense (NMD) program is a total waste of time (or, at the least, a sewer pipe which funnels money to Raytheon and other Defense contractors) should go to your library and read the article in this month’s Harper’s by JoAnn Wypijewski called “This is Only a Test: Missile Defense Makes Its Mark in the Marshall Islands”. In her article, Ms. Wypijewski covers what NMD — and all the incarnations of missile defense before it — has done to the native citizens of the Marshall Islands. The 10,000 natives now live on an island which encompasses about one-eighth of a square mile, which makes the population density the same as Lower Manhattan, except that everyone on the island is living at ground level.