Anchorage Daily News - Defense plan flawed, dangerous
By Soren Wuerth: Commentary, Anchorage Daily News
http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/0,2653,275312,00.html

 

Defense plan flawed, dangerous

By Soren Wuerth, Commentary


(Published June 17, 2001)
Those of us who grew up before 1980 probably recall that feeling of
having to constantly worry about the potential of nuclear war. Television
shows, classroom drills and the occasional survivalist neighbor with
a bomb shelter put the fear of nuclear holocaust on the list, along
with cancer and credit card payments, as stuff to worry about now and
again.

There was this thing called the "arms race," where nations built nuclear
warhead after warhead in a escalating frenzy to the point where any
one country could easily blow up the entire planet. But, at least for
me, it seemed calmer, cooler heads would prevail and peaceful measures
of diplomacy would prove our most effective foreign policy. A hot line
between Moscow and Washington was reassuring. When our presidents signed
treaties, like the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and START, the nation
slept better. So, it was a relief when the Cold War ended.

Now, unfortunately, chest-thrusting politicians are trying to force
the world back into another arms race, and Alaska is at center stage.
Time to start worrying again. The Bush Administration is pushing a
"National Missile Defense" system that would ostensibly pick incoming
missiles out of the sky using satellites, radars and intercept missiles.
"A bullet trying to hit a bullet," they say. No matter that the system
has a proven record of failure, no matter that nearly every country
in the world opposes this Star Wars fantasy and no matter that NMD
risks resuming an arms race, Bush wants a new, expensive military toy,
even if it doesn't work. Any construction of a defense system would
violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and jeopardize four
nonproliferation and disarmament treaties. Since much of the system
would be built in Alaska, our congressional delegation, the Legislature
and even Gov. Tony Knowles are marching behind promoters.

At an Anchorage Chamber of Commerce meeting, I submitted a question
on a card to a military public relations man after his presentation
marketing NMD to local business people. He flipped by my question,
which asked: "If NMD is not deployed, can we use some of the $10 billion
it costs to help clean up the military's 648 toxic waste sites in Alaska?"
Of course, proponents of NMD aren't concerned with the enormous amount
toxic military garbage. Instead, they see "rogue states" as our greatest
threat. They use North Korea as an example, despite its lack of a reliable
long-range missile system, a pitiful military arsenal and its bid for
diplomatic ties with South Korea and other countries.

Even though Alaska politicians are buying the plan, the rest of the
world isn't: Russia and China are worried NMD would make their countries
vulnerable to a U.S. first strike; Europe is worried NMD will undermine
painstaking efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons through agreements
like the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and many countries are clearly
worried about NMD's role in the Bush Administration's larger plan of
U.S. military domination of outer space.

No, the real motivation behind NMD is, as usual, the quest for corporate
profit. The nation's largest weapons manufacturers, Lockheed Martin,
Boeing, TRW and Raytheon, received more than $2.2 billion from the
Pentagon in 1998 and '99. In return, these corporate giants gave more
than $4 million in campaign contributions before the last election.
Sen. Ted Stevens, a promoter of National Missile Defense, got $135,000
in defense-related contributions in 1996.

Little wonder that the Pentagon has spent $122 billion of our money
for missile defense so far. It would be a sad day for Alaska and the
rest of the world if, for the sake of corporate profit, cement is poured
on Shemya Island to build a failed experiment that threatens a new
Cold War. On the bright side, there is a cure for this powerful NMD
disease. Folks, especially here in Alaska, can mobilize to say "No
Way!" to more military experiments. Two organizations have sprung up:
Citizens Opposed to Defense Experiments (CODE), an Anchorage coalition,
and No Nukes North, a Fairbanks group. Check out nonukesnorth.net or
call 278-3661 for more information.

Soren Wuerth is program director for the Alaska Action Center, a member
organization of CODE.