For those of you who haven’t been following the Star Wars story since the 1980s or so, here’s a quick summary:

1) Missile defense doesn’t work. Really. Even tests that are rigged such that it’s nearly impossible for them to fail, fail.

2) Generally, the program serves two purposes: corporate welfare for military contractors, and a political sop to right-wingers who are still eating the Reagan jellybeans.

3) Therefore, some people were concerned when the Obama administration appeared to support continued research and deployment on these failed systems, as the only sane reason not to end the program immediately is to use it as a diplomatic bargaining chip. (Please, Br’er Rabbit, don’t make me cancel my useless multibillion dollar expenditure!)

Ergo, I’m really quite happy to see this report in the New York Times, even as I’m slightly disturbed by the short half-life of an Obama secret. (Unless this was a deliberate leak, which actually makes some sense in this case.)