It Works, Stupid!

Vancouver - - Earlier this month the US military enjoyed a successful test of their missile defense system. The critics who had long criticized the plans and claimed that it was a ‘lemon’ that was never going to work were again proven wrong.

One such critic is Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.), Foreign Relations Committee chairman, who has continued to suggest that the US must not break out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM). It would seem that even though the system is bound to work and the Russians are open to negotiation that Biden and others are still trapped in the Cold War wanting to give Russia a veto over American actions.

Seriously, now that the system appears to work what is the defense against missile defense now? Is it not cowardly crawl into a foxhole that holds the ABM treaty as the most important document ever signed?

Not only is the system going to work, as if that was a problem anyway, it is going to be the first step beyond the mutually assured destruction mentality of the Cold War.

In an interview on CNN’s Late Edition, U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice expressed the firmness and resolute position of the Bush Administration on Missile Defense. ”The president made this point at his Fort McNair speech in May, in fact made this point well before he was elected president; that the new framework ought to bring down the number of strategic nuclear warheads, that it ought to permit the development of defenses, so that we can account for the new threats in the environment,” said Rice.

In Genoa at the G8 meeting just over a week ago, Bush was able to link the negotiations on missile defense with Russia with a broader game plan to mutually reduce nuclear weapon stockpiles. In a joint statement Putin and Bush agreed that they, “will shortly begin intensive consultations on the interrelated subjects of offensive and defensive systems.”

In an interview on Fox News Sunday Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz added, "I would say the premise of these discussions is, "Yes, we are going to build missile defenses." And the constraints of the ABM Treaty somehow have to be gotten beyond. But that we believe it's in Russia's interest as well as ours to do it cooperatively."

This is not to say that there will be smooth sailing from here on out; far from it in fact. Just prior to this agreement, China and Russia seemed to cozy up in their own little deal but this is nothing to get exited over.

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