Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Tech & Science

Bush Favors Defense Over Missiles

WASHINGTON — President Bush is poised to launch the most sweeping transformation of U.S. nuclear weapons and arms control policies in 30 years.

U.S. officials and European diplomats say that Bush will seek to extensively rewrite or abandon the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. “The implicit message in the last weeks was that the new administration is slowly but surely moving away from the ABM Treaty,” said one Western European diplomat.

Bush was expected to deliver a speech today calling for accelerating development of a missile defenses. The ABM Treaty bans all but the most limited defenses against ballistic missiles.

The treaty is considered the backbone of strategic arms control because it embodies the idea that neither side would be assured of defeating the other, thereby reducing the risk of nuclear war.

Under Bush’s plan, the United States is also expected to cut its nuclear arsenal without a formal pact with Russia. The president would propose replacing traditional arms control treaties with another mechanism for consulting on nuclear and arms control policies, said the diplomats.

Bush “is going to make a particular appeal to the Russians to develop a new foundation for strategic stability and security,” said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The White House also plans to hold talks with China, which strongly opposes a defensive shield that could neutralize its small number of nuclear missiles.

Jettisoning the ABM Treaty and the traditional arms control process would be a fundamental departure from the long-established method of limiting the arsenals of the United States and Russia through tedious and highly technical negotiations that can last for years.

Proponents of the new approach, including Bush, Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other senior officials, say the end of the Cold War and improved ties with Russia have rendered traditional arms control measures, including the ABM Treaty, obsolete.

In his speech today at the National Defense University, Bush “will say it’s time to rethink the concept of deterrence, based solely on the threat of nuclear retaliation,” said the senior administration official.

Proponents of missile defense say the United States needs the ability to mount defenses against a host of new threats, especially the development of ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear, biological and chemical warheads by such nations as North Korea, Iran and Iraq.

Another concern is accidental or unauthorized nuclear missile launches by China or Russia.

Arms control advocates and NATO allies are deeply worried that abandoning the treaty could undermine the global system designed to restrict the spread of nuclear weapons.

U.S. allies and arms control proponents welcome the concept of not waiting for Russia’s agreement to implement major cuts in the U.S. arsenal, estimated at more than 7,000 warheads.

The United States and Russia are due to reduce their arsenals to no more than 3,500 warheads each by 2007 under the START II Treaty. Russia has called for further reductions to 1,500 or fewer warheads each.

You may also like:

World

Calling for urgent action is the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

World

Immigration is a symptom of a much deeper worldwide problem.

Business

Saudi Aramco President & CEO Amin Nasser speaks during the CERAWeek oil summit in Houston, Texas - Copyright AFP Mark FelixPointing to the still...

Business

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal infers that some workers might be falling out of the job market altogether.