Ehrlich on Washington column, June 14, 1998

MEWS FROM Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. Second Congressional District of Maryland 1 407 York Road, Suite 304 Lutherville, Maryland 21093 315 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 EHRLICH ON WASHINGTON Week of June 14, 1998 By Congressman Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. INDI А AKIST AN NUCLEAR COMPETITION THREATENS NATIONAL SECURITY Last month, India and Pakistan tested several nuclear devices. These nuclear tests represent a failure of the Clinton Administration’s efforts to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These tests also raise the ugly specter of a new nuclear arms race stretching from China to Iran, and the possibility of nuclear war in South Asia. Further, the tests raise a legitimate question of whether the nuclear competition between Indian and Pakistan was inspired by President Clinton’s decision to allow sensitive commercial satellite technology to be shipped to China. India and Pakistan have joined the nuclear club with empty pockets; their instability increases the danger of a nuclear exchange in the future. Both nations expend large amounts of their budget on military purchases, despite growing populations that live in extreme poverty. For instance, Pakistan spends four-fifths of its annual budget on non-domestic expenditures, such as military programs and interest on its large foreign debt. Moreover, neither nation is a model of Jeffersonian democracy. As these nations lurch towards nuclear “weaponization,” neither employs adequate safeguards against accidental launches or mutual surveillance of their nuclear capabilities and intentions. The Indian and Pakistani tests did not occur in a vacuum. Both nations have been bitter