10 September 2001
Biden Says Bush Missile Defense Plan Could Trigger New Arms Race
(Key senator warns it would divert funds from real needs) (890) By Ralph Dannheisser Washington File Congressional Correspondent Washington -- The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has delivered a broadside against the Bush administration's missile defense proposal, calling it dangerous nonsense that could propel a new arms race even as it steals scarce funds from real defense needs. At the same time, Senator Joseph Biden (Democrat, Delaware) warned in a speech at the National Press Club September 10, moving away from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty and other arms control pacts could severely damage America's standing in the world. "I don't believe our national interest can be furthered, let alone achieved, in splendid indifference to the rest of the world. Our interests are furthered when we meet our international obligations and keep our treaties," he declared. Biden, one of several Democratic senators who has expressed possible interest in pursuing his party's presidential nomination in 2004, told his audience that "American foreign policy should not be based primarily on a principle of national self-interest that defines strength as rigid adherence to inflexible theory, or positive results as emotionally satisfying unilateral action." And, he continued, the United States "must remain at the table" because its allies "should never think that America ignores international opinion or that we're ready to go it alone. They should never think that our commitment to vital multinational institutions and projects built on common values and common concerns - and that includes NATO - has diminished." Specifically, he derided the president's "almost theological allegiance" to developing a missile defense system - a topic to which he devoted the great bulk of his talk. The president has set development of a missile defense program as a top priority, and has expressed a determination to "move beyond" the 1972 ABM treaty negotiated with the former Soviet Union, which bars development of all but a highly limited missile defense shield. The administration has asked Congress to increase funding for preliminary research and development to some $8,300 million in the fiscal year that starts October 1. The Senate Armed Services committee voted September 7 to reduce that amount by $1,300 million, prompting administration officials to warn that Bush might well veto a defense spending bill that fails to include the full amount. Biden's Press Club speech in Washington reinforced the view that the issue will be a contentious one when it reaches the Senate floor. The five-term senator assailed those in the administration who, he said, would abandon arms control treaties "with the excuse that they're relics of the Cold War." Indeed, he said in a departure from his text, "Many of those uttering that phrase are themselves relics of the Cold War." "We should rely on mutual deterrence rather than thinking we can replace it, because deterrence works," he said. "Are we really prepared to raise the starting gun on a new arms race in a potentially more dangerous world?" Biden asked. "Make no mistake, folks, if we deploy a missile defense system we could do just that," he told his audience. And if Bush "continues to go headlong, head-strong on this theological mission to deploy his missile defense system" and, in the process, goes through with plans to drop objections to a Chinese missile build-up in return for Chinese acquiescence to missile defense plans," Biden warned, "not only will we have raised that starting gun, we will have pulled back the hammer." "Let's stop this nonsense before we end up pulling the trigger," he declared. Biden deemed it "absolute lunacy" to invite China to resume nuclear testing and expand its arsenal, and warned that moving ahead with missile defense could jeopardize Chinese cooperation on the Korean Peninsula. The Foreign Relations chairman foresaw a domino effect, in which a Chinese build-up in reaction to U.S. missile defense development would surely trigger a response by India, which in turn would prompt Pakistan to boost its nuclear production. And Taiwan, North and South Korea and Japan could all be pushed into building their own nuclear weapons, he theorized. Biden speculated that costs of a full-scale, layered missile defense system could reach $500,000 million dollars - and said that even then it would have only limited success in warding off incoming missiles. In contrast, Biden said, the United States could use the money for alternate, more effective, purposes, and "provide our Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines virtually everything they need in the immediate future for about $385,000 million," while also making vital improvements in military personnel retention and overall readiness. Moreover, Biden reiterated his position - and that of other missile defense plan opponents - that an intercontinental missile attack is actually the "least likely threat" to U.S. security, "while the real threats come into this country in the hold of a ship, or the belly of a plane, or are smuggled into a city in the middle of the night in a vial in a backpack." Those threats of attack by biological, chemical and directly delivered nuclear weapons are the ones that must be more effectively dealt with, he argued. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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