Washington Post:
More than three decades ago, Michael D. Griffin was at the center of the military’s “Star Wars” initiative, working to realize President Ronald Reagan’s dream of shielding the United States from Soviet missiles like “a roof protects a family from rain.”
Now the 69-year-old scientist is back at the Pentagon as its top technology official, looking to revive some of the same missile defense concepts that proponents credited with helping end the Cold War and detractors ridiculed as the excesses of a hawkish Hollywood president.
It is not only Griffin who has returned to the Pentagon. So, too, has the zeal of a great-power arms race reminiscent of the rivalry with the Soviet Union. Drawing on robust defense funding from Congress, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is embarking on a vast overhaul of the U.S. military to take aim at threats from Russia and China.
