Senator Lott ‘Grows’ in Office
(Washington, D.C.): In Washington, one often hears it said of conservative politicians that
they
have “grown in office” when they depart from the principles and constituencies that put them in
power. For example, the political establishment and media elite toasted Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott last year when he allowed the ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention,
despite its ineffectuality as an arms control measure and its adverse implications for American
sovereignty, economic interests and national security.(1)
My, hasn’t Trent matured as a leader, the
liberals said.
Real Growth
There has been decidedly less cheering from those quarters in recent months, however, as
Sen.
Lott has demonstrated on a number of issues a willingness to take robust positions
opposing unverifiable and pernicious arms control agreements and urged policies that will
safeguard the United States’ security and economy over the long-term.
Notably, the Majority Leader has rejected the Comprehensive Test Ban (CTB)
Treaty that
the Clinton Administration absurdly tried to represent as an effective impediment to nuclear
proliferation, even before the Indian and Pakistani detonations made a mockery of those claims.
On 29 May, Sen. Lott issued a press release which declared, “American policy should shift from a
misguided focus on an unverifiable and ineffective treaty…”
last Friday’s New York Times, he added: “What the [CTB] treaty will do is
prevent the United
States from conducting tests necessary to maintain the safety and reliability of our own
nuclear deterrent.” This explicit recognition of the continuing need for U.S. testing is as
welcome as it is needed if America’s nuclear forces are to remain credible for the foreseeable
future.
Leadership on Defending America
Even more important than Sen. Lott’s call for “a complete reappraisal of U.S. export control,
counter-proliferation and arms control policies,” however, is his increasingly insistent
demand
that such policies be complemented with actual defensive measures. As he put it in his
press
release last month: “[U.S. policy] must also reflect an understanding that offensive steps —
including missile and nuclear testing — will proliferate until missile defense programs are in place.
Only effective missile defenses, not unenforceable arms control treaties will break the
offensive arms race in Asia and provide incentives to address security concerns without a
nuclear response.”
The Majority Leader underscored the latter point in his appearance Sunday on ABC’s
“This
Week” program, calling for the adoption of bipartisan legislation co-sponsored by Sen.
Lott’s
Republican colleague from Mississippi, Thad Cochran, and Senator
Daniel Inouye, Democrat
of Hawaii. This critical legislation would make it the policy of the U.S. government to
deploy effective national missile defenses as soon as technologically possible.
Next Steps
Trent Lott will have a number of other opportunities to demonstrate just how much he has
really
grown in office when the Senate begins debate on the Fiscal Year 1999 authorization bill for the
Department of Defense. The following are among the issues that are expected to come up — or
that should:
- Rejecting arms control initiatives that are inconsistent with U.S. security
interests.
In addition to repudiating any push for favorable Senate action on the CTB Treaty,
Senator Lott should use his leadership to reject legislation that would compel the United
States to join an unverifiable, ineffective international ban on the use of anti-personnel
landmines. Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and prime-mover in Congress
behind this addled idea, recently got the Clinton Administration to go along — over the
strong opposition of the U.S. military. The Senate should not be party to such a betrayal
of the men and women whose lives and mission success would be unnecessarily
jeopardized by this initiative. - Protecting American sovereignty by opposing international agreements that would
seriously erode it. For example, the Senate should join the House of Representatives,
which unanimously agreed a few weeks ago to exempt the U.S. military from the Kyoto
Climate Change Treaty, thereby ensuring that the national security is not put at risk in
the name of unsubstantiated concerns about global warming.
Leader should encourage the Senate to oppose the creation of mechanisms like the
International Criminal Court,(4) now being
negotiated in Rome, and the International
Seabed Authority created by the as-yet-unratified UN Convention on the Law
of Sea,
that would subordinate American citizens and economic interests to unaccountable and
unconstitutional external control. - Reinvigorate a security-minded U.S. export control policy. Sen. Lott
should see to it
that the Defense Technology Security Administration (DTSA) is once again made an
effective watchdog over the transfers of strategic dual-use technologies to potential
adversaries.(5) This will require not only that
Pentagon plans to reorganize DTSA into
oblivion be suspended; its policy independence, technical competence and ready
access to the Secretary of Defense must also be assured. In addition, DTSA should be
charged with preparing export decontrol impact statements — a means of judging the
detrimental security impacts, including the potentially vast added defense budget
costs, of
ill-advised technology transfers. - Preserve U.S. economic sanctions as a security policy tool. The Majority
Leader
should ensure the defeat of an effort by Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) to emasculate and
otherwise limit the use of American economic sanctions, export controls, punitive financial
measures, etc. While such instruments are often less effective then would be desirable —
particularly when allied nations purposefully undercut them — they nonetheless represent
an important policy alternative to the generally unattractive options of 1) doing nothing or
2) going to war. - Finally, get started on deploying anti-missile defenses. Senator Lott
should take the
lead in securing from the Defense Department a congressionally mandated report about
the most promising near-term missile defense option — a report the Clinton
Administration has been suppressing since last February. This study required of the
Ballistic Missile Defense Organization has been needlessly classified, but it reportedly
confirms the important contribution that the Navy’s AEGIS fleet air defense system
could make to defending both America’s forces and allies overseas and the U.S.,
itself.(6) Making this study publicly available and
authorizing the start of detailed system
engineering for such an AEGIS option would be the natural complement to early
enactment of the Cochran-Inouye bill so as to realize the sort of anti-missile protection the
Majority Leader properly is demanding.
The Bottom Line
In the final analysis, of course, the ultimate test of leadership is not favorable reviews from the
New York Times editorial board or the Washington dinner party circuit. Rather, it is
determined
by whether one stands for principles and policies that will protect U.S. national interests.
By this
standard, Senator Lott has truly grown in office in recent months. Let us hope he
continues to do so.
– 30 –
1. For a detailed analysis of the CWC, see the Center for Security
Policy Compendium entitled
The Case Against the Chemical Weapons Convention, 8 April
1998.
2. See the Center’s Decision Brief entitled
Needed: A ‘Loyal Opposition’ to Clinton’s
Anti-Nuclear Policy (No. 98-D 96, 1 June 1998).
3. See the Casey Institute Compendium entitled
The National Security Implications and Other
Costs of the Global Climate Change (“Kyoto”) Treaty, May 1998.
4. The Center for Security Policy’s director, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.,
joined Senator John Ashcroft
(R-MO), former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese and other opponents of the ICC in a press
conference to announce the formation of the broad based Coalition for American Sovereignty
and the Bill of Rights, created to argue that this court will prove to be unconstitutional, a serious
infringement upon American liberties and detrimental to the morale and combat performance of
the U.S. military. For more on this coalition, contact Cliff Kincaid, director of the American
Sovereignty Action Project at (703) 352-4788.
5. See the Center’s Decision Brief entitled
Broadening the Lens: Peter Leitner’s Revelations
on ’60 Minutes,’ Capitol Hill Indict Clinton Technology Insecurity (
1998) and Press Release entitled Profile In Courage: Peter
Leitner Blows The Whistle On
Clinton’s Dangerous Export Decontrol Policies (
6. See the Center’s Decision Brief entitled
Validation of the Aegis Option: Successful Test Is
First Step From Promising Concept to Global Anti-Missile Capability (
January 1997) and a Heritage Foundation blue-ribbon study on the merits of the Aegis option,
which can be accessed via the World Wide Web at the following address:
www.nationalsecurity.or g/heritage/nationalsecurity/teamb.
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