America the Defenseless?

The average American probably doesn't give much thought to national defense these days. There is a common perception that since the United States is the world's only remaining superpower, it is therefore invulnerable to the attacks of lesser powers. In fact a recent poll showed that more than 3/4 of the American population believes that this country can destroy incoming missiles in mid-flight. Nothing could be less true. The United States has no defense against incoming missiles -- including those loaded with nuclear, biological, or chemical warheads.

"Well whatever happened to the Star Wars defense system we were supposed to be developing?" you might ask. President Clinton, in his wisdom, decided to scrap it, despite the fact that 86% of the American people (according to another recent poll) support the idea. He felt it would be incompatible with the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty we signed with the Soviet Union in 1972. (Republicans have floored a bill that would re-commence the development of such a shield, but the Democrats have filibustered it.)

"But that's mad!" you say. Right. That's what they called it -- MAD, meaning "mutually assured destruction." The idea was, if they bombed us, we'd bomb them back, so everyone would get blown up and nobody would win. The world would descend into a "nuclear winter" and no one would live happily ever after.

The world has changed a lot since 1972. The Soviet Union, with whom President Nixon signed the ABM treaty, no longer exists. In its place, we have a chaotic, corrupt, Russia, which, along with a whole gaggle of former Soviet nations, still possesses nuclear weapons, and the means to deliver them.

Not only that, thanks to the technology transfer permitted by the current Administration, China, which is still communist, and which represents 1/5 of the world's population, now has the means to launch nuclear weapons our way from just about anywhere -- including an obscure ship at sea.

To make matters worse, the Clinton Administration is seeking to convert the defunct (since one of the signatories no longer exists) ABM treaty into a new agreement that would be even more limiting than the original one. The new treaty would be multi-lateral -- with Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan -- and it would impose new restrictions on theater (battlefield) missile defenses as well as anti-ballistic missiles.

Though Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, along with other laws, requires that this new treaty come before the Senate for advice and consent, the Clinton Administration is quietly implementing it without Senate approval. Says Thomas Moore, director of International Studies at the Heritage Foundation, "If allowed to get away with this breach of the Constitution and statute law, the White House would lock us into vulnerability to ballistic missiles for the foreseeable future."

In other words, this Administration does not see a need for an anti-ballistic missile defense system that would protect the populace from incoming nuclear missiles. Instead, it prefers to rely on the outmoded mentality of MADness.

In a world such as ours, MAD is madness. Not only do we have to concern ourselves with missiles from Russia, former Soviet Bloc nations, and China, but other nations are also developing and stockpiling deadly weapons of mass destruction

North Korea, also communist, is rapidly replacing its No Dong missile delivery system with the Taepo Dong 2 system, which has eight times the range of its predecessor. The new missiles can reach the U.S. mainland in an arc reaching from Phoenix to Madison, Wisconsin.

Iran, as Israel has been warning us for some time, is only a breath away from "going nuclear." Its mid-range missile delivery system is already well advanced. On July 22, 1998, Iran test fired its Shahab-3 mid-range ballistic missile (more than a year ahead of Pentagon estimates). This weapon has a range of approximately 812 miles, putting it within striking distance of Israel, and parts of eastern Europe.

Iraq has been working on developing a nuclear weapons program for three decades. In 1981, Israel destroyed Iraq's nuclear facility at Osirak -- to a chorus of world criticism. As Yossi Halevi says, "We now know that without Israel's attack, the American-led coalition in the Gulf War almost certainly would have faced a nuclear-armed Saddam Hussein…" Had that been the case, things would have turned out quite differently. Iraq has also been seeking more accurate, longer range, delivery systems. It already has chemical and biological weapons, which it is easily able to hide from UN inspectors.

India and Pakistan recently exploded nuclear weapons, and both have the means to deliver them well outside of their own borders.

The world we live in is significantly more dangerous than it was during the cold war. All too often, the kind of people who lead the nations that are now coming into high-tech weapons of mass destruction are thugs, fanatics, and nut cases -- people for whom human life is entirely expendable in the name of wielding power.

At the very least, nuclear blackmail is becoming a real possibility. At worst, the US is utterly vulnerable to a rain of deadly missiles from any number of potential enemies.

It is time to scrap the ABM treaty, and all revised versions of it. As Larry Arnn put it, it was "…a bad agreement with a partner that no longer even exists." It is time to revive the visionary Star Wars defense system undertaken by the Reagan Administration.

As rapidly as possible, anti-ballistics missile systems should be deployed on U.S. Aegis cruisers.

We should also commit to building an infrastructure for a comprehensive system of missile defense that encompasses land, sea, air and space.

In light of the new barbarians who are coming into power around the world, the U.S. would do well to remember that barbarians respect only power equal to, or greater than, their own, and the willingness of those who have to use it without hesitation.

To put it in Biblical terms, "Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil" (Ecclesiastes 8:11).

Or, as I stated it in an earlier column, evil unopposed is evil encouraged.

As Christians, we can have no hope in a worldly Administration that is contrary even to common sense itself. Our hope must be in God, and in God alone. As our Lord taught us, we must, "Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:36).