I believe the military industrial complex that Ike was referring to more involved the top military/political leadership and the defense industry, not the grunts who bleed for this country.

As an ex Aegis Firecontrolman my guess is they sent the destroyers in to track the launch, not shoot. Shooting them down would require some fairly significant mods to an SM-3 (similar to what they did to shoot down that satellite last year). I agree with you Master Chief, hit them with the laser.