Ehrlich on Washington column, October 2, 2000

NEWS FROM Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr Second Congressional District of Maryland 1 407 York Road, Suite 304 3 1 5 Cannon House Office Building Lutherville, Maryland 21093 Washington, D.C. 20515 ON WASHINGTON Week of October 2, 2000 By Congressman Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. Protecting America with National Missile Defense During the long Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union, our two nations built tens of thousands of nuclear weapons. It was an arms race with lasting financial and security implications. During the 1990s, however, the world changed. Many nations embraced democracy, including our old threat, the former Soviet Union. While this Cold War arms race drove the Soviet Union to bankruptcy and disintegration, several smaller countries emerged with nuclear weapons and ballistic missile capabilities. Today, a dozen or more nations possess nuclear weapons, including Russia, China, North Korea, India, Pakistan, Israel, and Syria. For example, North Korea demonstrated its ability to the world on August 31, 1998, when it tested the Taepo-Dong 1, a three-stage missile, which can reach Alaska and Hawaii easily and with slight modifications the continental United States. Even more ominous is the Central Intelligence Agency’s recent report that China possesses long-range missiles aimed at the United States. Against this backdrop, the Clinton Administration has decided not to devote American time, money, and ingenuity to build a system which will defend us from threatening nations. Instead, the President has left the fate of a missile defense shield to his successor. This decision ignores a law signed last year which mandated the U.S. deploy a missile defense system. In my view, this system is essential if we are to protect ourselves and the world from the irony of destruction by our own hand. Many critics (including some Members of Congress) argue that we can control nuclear weapons through treaty negotiations, strict observation, and active diplomacy. The reality we face is a world with aging nuclear weapons and reckless leaders like Saddam Hussein desperately trying to acquire them. Presently, we have an opportunity to invest a fraction of our budget surplus in a missile defense system. I believe we must close the Cold War chapter of the mutual assured destruction doctrine and move boldly into the 21st century by constructing a defensive missile system to protect rather than frighten our population. Some critics argue we should unilaterally disarm. That option