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THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACCOUNTABILITY OF AMERICAN BASES (CAAB) |
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THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACCOUNTABILITY OF AMERICAN BASES (CAAB) |
White House
Unveils Antimissile System Policy
Units Would Defend Against Strikes by Terrorists and Hostile
Nations, Paper Says
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 21, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration presented its rationale yesterday for pursuing a
network of new antimissile systems, releasing a White House policy paper that
says the defenses are necessary to guard against possible attack by chemical,
biological or nuclear weapons from hostile states or terrorists. The rationale was a familiar one, articulated by President Bush and senior
aides frequently over the past two years as the administration has boosted
spending on missile defenses and embarked on an aggressive plan to combat all
kinds of missiles in all phases of flight. But several administration officials said release of the 41/2-page statement,
titled "National Policy on Ballistic Missile Defense," was intended to
provide a more formal, comprehensive explanation for a set of weapons programs
that consumes more than $8 billion a year and will likely top $9 billion in
fiscal 2004. The statement is essentially the directive Bush signed last year before
announcing in December that he had ordered the deployment of an initial set of
long-range missile interceptors in Alaska and California by September 2004.
Known as National Security Presidential Directive 23, the text has been kept
confidential for months as administration officials weighed when and how to
release it. Most presidential directives remain secret. But the missile defense paper was
drafted as an unclassified document with the intention of offering it eventually
as a public policy statement, officials said. Its release coincides with congressional debate of the administration's 2004
military spending plan, including complaints from some Democrats that the
deployment plan is too rushed and short on specific performance criteria. It
also comes amid heightened U.S. concern about North Korea's pursuit of nuclear
weapons. Among the chief reasons administration officials cite for stationing
the first interceptors in the western United States and getting them in place is
to counter a potential attack by North Korea. But officials suggested yesterday that the timing of the release was largely
because there was no other major news. In outlining the need for antimissile
systems, the White House paper asserts that a growing missile threat from
"hostile states" represents a "fundamentally different" set
of circumstances than the United States faced during the Cold War standoff with
the Soviet Union and "requires a different approach to deterrence and new
tools for defense." It describes missile defenses not as "a
replacement for an offensive response capability" but as "an added and
critical dimension of contemporary deterrence." The statement stresses that the national system set for deployment next year
is only "a starting point" of what will be "an evolutionary
approach" to better defenses over time. "The United States will not
have a final, fixed missile defense architecture," the paper says. It also puts special emphasis on using antimissile systems to defend
"allies and friends" and includes a section promoting cooperation with
Russia and other countries in developing and fielding missile defenses.