The Emerging G.O.P. Alternative on Missile Defense — Exercising the ‘AEGIS Option’

(Washington, D.C.): In today’s New York Times, syndicated columnist William
Safire gave a
preview of the foreign policy address Texas Governor and Republican presidential candidate
George W. Bush will make tomorrow. Of particular interest are remarks the
Governor made in
a brief interview to “pre-sell” the speech (an exercise Mr. Safire describes, with characteristic
verve, as the “symbiotic drum-beating in the media echo chamber”) concerning the candidate’s
views on missile defense and the ABM Treaty.

The relevant exchange, with Mr. Safire’s questions followed by Mr. Bush’s responses,
appears in
the column:

“When [would you] deploy a missile defense? ‘I think we ought to give Russia a
reasonable period of time¹…if not, we ought to abrogate
the ABM Treaty.’ How long
is reasonable — years? ‘Months.'”

“When we spoke in April, you had not decided if we should sell anti-missile
missiles to Taiwan. Any decision yet? ‘You mean — when we deploy the
AEGIS cruiser system, for example, will we sell the technology to Taiwan?
Depends on how the Chinese behave.”

This statement follows by six days a similar declaration by another Republican
presidential
candidate, Steve Forbes. In a major address on China delivered at the Nixon
Library last Friday,
Mr. Forbes declared:

“In a Forbes Administration, American sovereignty and national security will come
first. That means defending our vital national security interests, which include the
following: Protecting the American homeland, borders, shores and airspace;
protecting Americans against threats to their lives and well-being; preventing a major
power from dominating Europe, East Asia or the Persian Gulf….

“America must be absolutely committed to remain the premier military power in
the Pacific. The Forbes Administration will rebuild — not run down — our
national defenses. We will strengthen our alliances with key countries in the
region to counter-balance the Chinese threat….

“We will also deploy state-of-the-art missile defense systems — such as
the
sea-based AEGIS system — to protect our allies and ourselves….When a
Chinese general made a not-so-veiled threat to ‘nuke’ Los Angeles over the
Taiwan crisis several years ago, ² he made one thing
abundantly clear: We must
not allow China’s growing nuclear arsenal to continue to threaten American cities
and decouple the United States from our allies.”

The Bottom Line

These candidates’ remarks suggest that Republicans are increasingly understanding not only
the
need to deploy effective, global missile defenses as soon as technologically possible. They are
also appreciating that the way to begin to accomplish that objective most rapidly, most
efficiently, most flexibly and at least cost is by adapting the U.S. Navy’s AEGIS air
defense
system. ³

Messrs. Bush and Forbes are to be commended for making a commitment to the AEGIS
Option
an important part of the coming campaign. By so doing, they — and other, like-minded
candidates — can ensure that the need to defend America receives appropriate public attention in
the 2000 election cycle and, with a little luck, that the Nation actually deploys such
defenses
before it needs them rather than afterwards.

¹ This is a misbegotten idea because: a) the Treaty no longer exists
and b) the Russians have
shown themselves to be adroit at exploiting any evidence that the United States believes
otherwise to exercise what amounts to a veto over U.S. missile defenses. See the Center’s
Decision Brief entitled Memo to ‘W’: You Can’t Get to a Missile Defense Via
the A.B.M.
Treaty (No. 99-D 133, 17 November 1999).

² See Persona Non Grata: P.L.A. General Xiong
Guangkai (No. 99-F 32, 16 November 1999).

³ For more on the “AEGIS Option,” see The Heritage Foundation’s
study entitled Defending
America. This study can be accessed via the world wide web at the following address:
www.heritage.org/missile_defense/.