AL-1 Airborne Laser Moves ahead......

[Mr. Coffee]

Why do you hate freedom so much?

[Marcus Aurelius]

Why do you hate freedom so much?

Quite the contrary, because "Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire." (Epictetus)

In this case spesifically by controlling the desire to spend huge amounts of money on airborne lasers.

[Mr. Coffee]

See, thinking like that is what's gonna let the aliens win.

[defanatic]

This is rather hazy, but I recall one shot from the laser being much cheaper than one air-to-air missile or SAM. That could be a factor in the decision to use it, perhaps?

[BR7]

I mean, what the fuck are we gonna do when the aliens finally come? Toss missiles at 'em like a bunch of primitives, or are we gonna show those filthy xenos just how large our collective brains (and dicks) really are...

Yes, let's do that so that they can say: "Under CREW attack(...) No immediate threat at present power and frequencies."

Don't forget, "It won't even penetrate our navigational deflector."