CRAIGforCONGRESS

Missouri's 7th District, U.S. House of Representatives

  
 

 

 

Congressional Issues 2010
FOREIGN AFFAIRS - DEFENSE
Strategic Nuclear Forces and Missile Defense



At the very least, the 112th Congress should:
  • endorse only a truly "national" limited land-based national missile defense (NMD) system;
  • eschew grandiose sea- and space-based missile defenses— which are unnecessary, expensive "international" systems designed to protect wealthy U.S. allies and friends and provide a robust shield for unneeded U.S. interventions overseas;
  • pressure the new administration to slow development of land-based missile defense so that the system can be thoroughly tested under realistic conditions before a decision is made to deploy it;
  • encourage the U.S. administration to offer deep cuts in offensive strategic nuclear forces—down to a maximum of 1,500 war-heads (the Russian proposal)—in exchange for Russian acquiescence to a limited U.S. land-based NMD; and
  • reduce the triad of U.S. nuclear forces—nuclear-capable bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and sea-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs)—to a dyad.

One of the most indisputably legitimate functions of government -- from a constitutional and historical perspective -- is defense of the nation from foreign attack. The 13 original States united for protection against Britain, France, etc.

The post 9-11 world presents us with very different realities:

  • There is no Britain, France -- or even Russia or China -- that seeks to colonize the New World, or take control of an infant U.S.A.
  • U.S. military intervention in and against foreign nations -- opposed by our Founding Fathers -- creates a context in which a comprehensive system of defense takes on an offensive character, diminishing our national security;
  • small nations that fear the U.S. -- with boxcutters and suitcase nukes -- are more of a threat than "evil empires" like the "former" Soviet Union.

No sensible defense policy can be formulated without simultaneously admitting that current policy:



next: Problems with the New NATO