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Bauer Calls for Missile Defense Deployment Thursday, July 30

"The first responsibility of elected officials is to defend American lives," Family Research Council President Gary Bauer said Thursday as he called on Congress to push for the development and deployment of a ballistic missile defense system to protect American families.

"It is morally wrong for our leaders to intentionally leave the American people vulnerable to missile attack when the U.S. has the ability to protect them." Bauer criticized the government's policy of delaying deployment of a national missile defense system while seeking to expand the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty signed by the U.S. and the former Soviet Union in 1972.

Bauer joined House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senator Kyl, former UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston and others at a news conference Thursday sponsored by the Coalition to Defend America. The Coalition released a poll showing strong support for a national missile defense system.

"The American people face a serious and growing threat of missile attack," Bauer said, noting that rogue states like North Korea, Iran, Iraq, and Libya are working to acquire missiles that could threaten American cities. Bauer urged Congress to pass legislation to help minimize the danger from a deliberate missile attack by a terrorist country or an accidental or unauthorized missile launch by China or Russia. "It is the policy of the United States government to deploy effective national missile defenses as soon as technologically possible," said Bauer.

The bi-partisan Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States found that the threat of a missile strike was immediate. The Commission's findings contradict those of the 1995 National Intelligence Estimate which said that a missile threat was at least 15 years away.

Bauer said that developing and deploying a missile defense system would not violate the 1972 ABM treaty. Bauer said the treaty was "a relic of the Cold War," and that it was no longer valid since the Soviet Union no longer exists. Any attempt by the Clinton administration to extend the treaty to the former Soviet republics such as Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, "would constitute a new treaty that would have to be approved by the Senate," Bauer said. "In light of the current climate of proliferation and terrorism, it's unwise to rely solely on a treaty to safeguard the American people from missile attack. Americans expect their leaders to do everything they can to protect them."

Family Research Council
Contact: Kristin Hansen or, for radio, Chad Nykamp of the Family Research Council, 202-393-2100