... COMPETITION FOR WEAPONS IS HEATING UP

With all of the current talk about the U.S. missile-defense system, Russia has weighed in. Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev said such a system would be ineffective, because technology developed by the Soviets in the 1980s could easily counteract the outer-space shield. In addition, China is said to be developing ground-based lasers and pulse weapons that are intended to blind or destroy U.S. satellites.

Wait a minute. Russian and China are our friends, right? They are our trading partners, right? We're not playing those Cold War games anymore, right? Well, maybe and maybe not.

Current military programs in both Russia and China -- not to mention North Korea, Iran and Iraq -- pose a threat that most of us might have assumed went away when the Cold War ended. But the biggest threat of all is the fugitive Osama bin Ladin, whose knack for terrorism is the hardest to counteract.

All of which starts to sound like a familiar arms race that could drain dollars from other areas of this country's sorely needed military buildup.