Missile Defense Imperatives

“This beautiful night, there is not a single nuclear missile pointed at a child in the United
States
of America.” President Clinton spoke those words in August 1996. Now, we must conclude,
either he didn’t know what he was talking about or the Chinese have made a great leap forward in
nuclear missile technology in a very short time.

According to the CIA, the Chinese have 13 long-range CSS-4 nuclear missiles aimed at
American children and, indeed, at Americans of all ages. Are those missiles more reliable and
accurate thanks to technology supplied to China illegally by a company run by Mr. Clinton’s
biggest contributor?

That’s the conclusion of a Pentagon agency and a top State Department official, as has been
widely reported. What we don’t know is whether Mr. Clinton consciously compromised national
security as part of some sort of quid pro quo. Even partisans like me must hope – fervently – that
this isn’t so.

But no matter what brought about China’s newfound nuclear missile prowess, the American
response ought to be the same. We ought to do something to protect Americans from Chinese
missiles – and from missiles of any other national origin. We ought to build a national missile
defense system.

Old-line thinkers say we don’t need to protect ourselves. They invoke MAD – Mutually
Assured Destruction – the Cold War doctrine that said the Soviet Union would never attack
America because to do so would inevitably lead to the annihilation of both states. But such a
doctrine only makes sense when dealing with governments that are – no matter how evil –
essentially rational. Rogue nations like Iran, a recipient of Chinese nuclear assistance, may not
find the logic of MAD persuasive. And clearly MAD has no application where terrorist
organizations are concerned. The obvious alternative is for the U.S. government to do its job and
provide for the national security by building a shield to protect us from nuclear missile attack.

So far, however, the Clinton administration and most congressional Democrats have
rejected
such an idea out of hand. Just last month, 41 Senate Democrats blocked even debate on the
American Missile Protection Act of 1998. The bill would have required the government to deploy
as soon as technologically possible an effective National Missile Defense system capable of
defending U.S. territory against limited ballistic missile attack (whether accidental, unauthorized
or deliberate).

Only four Democrats voted for it, and the bill fell one vote short of passing. Tellingly, two
of
the four Democratic senators voting yes were from Hawaii – a state where people know
something about sneak attacks, and the piece of America geographically closest to China.

Why do most Democrats insist on leaving America unprotected? Believe it or not, Mr.
Clinton
says building a strategic defense to protect the American people would violate the 1972
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty – a treaty signed with the Soviet Union, a nation that no longer
exists.

It should not take a rocket scientist to understand that adhering to a nuclear weapons
agreement with a defunct country is both legally unnecessary and strategically shortsighted.

The administration also argues that its policy of nuclear non-proliferation will ensure
America’s
strategic defense. But the recent nuclear tests in India and Pakistan vividly demonstrate the folly
of that policy. Maybe if the Clinton administration had done a better job with intelligence, we
would not have been surprised by those tests. Maybe, if the Clinton administration had done a
better job with diplomacy, those tests could have been prevented. And maybe if the Clinton
administration had been more conservative about technology transfers, China would not have had
the nuclear technology to give Pakistan and Iran – which prompted India to flaunt its weapons
program, setting off a chain reaction that has yet to be cut off.

All that is for investigators and historians to sort out. The current reality is that a new arms
race is under way and that the nuclear club is expanding. The time to act is now, before it is too
late.

As a first step, the Navy should immediately begin adapting its AEGIS fleet air defense
system
to provide missile protection for both this country and our forces overseas. Other systems should
be researched, developed and deployed as quickly as possible.

This project is not beyond our reach. Surely, the nation that both put a man on the moon
and
invented the computer video game can find a way to knock hostile missiles out of the skies. I
invite President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and other Democrats to join us, and make
safeguarding America a bipartisan project.

But if they will not, the Republican Party is prepared to have this become a political issue.
We
are prepared to ask the American people if they agree the United States should be defenseless
against weapons of mass destruction, relying instead on outdated treaties and the good intentions
of our adversaries.

What Bill Clinton said back in 1996 about no foreign missiles being aimed at our kids
wasn’t
true. But we can do something to protect our children and ourselves – and it won’t cost a single
life, American or foreign. We need to get started.

Jim Nicholson, a West Point graduate and Vietnam veteran, is chairman of the
Republican
National Committee.