Super Moderator
Location: essex ma
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it was a campaign agenda item before the start of the bush travesty.
here's an article from the nyt, january 2001:
Quote:
January 27, 2001
Bush Repeats Call for Arms Reduction and Missile Shield
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
Susana Raab for The New York Times
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, in civilian clothes, inspected troops Friday at the Pentagon. With him were Gen. Henry H. Shelton, left, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Col. Thomas Jordan.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 — Treading into national security policy after a week devoted to education, abortion and tax cuts, President Bush said today that he intended to keep his campaign pledge to reduce the nation's nuclear weapons as he moved ahead with construction of a defense against ballistic missiles.
Mr. Bush repeated a proposal he made last spring and suggested he would proceed with reductions in nuclear warheads and the construction of a missile defense as a way to spur new arms-control negotiations with the Russians .
"I think it's important for us, commensurate with our ability to keep the peace, to reduce our nuclear arsenal on our own," Mr. Bush said after meeting at the White House with a bipartisan group of governors on his education proposals released this week. "And I'm going to fulfill that campaign promise. That may, you know — we'll see how that affects the possible arms talks."
Mr. Bush made his remarks, in response to a question, a day after receiving a letter from Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, outlining major issues facing both countries and calling for greater cooperation.
Mr. Bush said he had not responded to Mr. Putin's letter, though he planned to, joking that he had read about the letter, presumably in the media, "before it hit Washington." He made it clear, however, that he did not intend to back away from his commitment to build a missile defense, even though it is one of the most contentious issues between the United States and Russia today.
"My point is, is that I want America to lead the nation — lead the world — toward a more safe world when it comes to nuclear weaponry," he added, emphasizing his intent to build a missile shield and reduce nuclear warheads. "On the offensive side we can do so, and we can do so on the defensive side, as well."
While he has moved aggressively on issues of abortion, education and taxes, Mr. Bush and his national security advisers have moved more cautiously in matters of foreign affairs.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell swept into the State Department with a flourish, greeting the diplomatic corps at two pep rallies this week but outlining few details of how he intends to sell the administration's policies, including missile defense, which is strongly opposed by Russia and China.
Across the Potomac, Donald H. Rumsfeld began his second tenure as secretary of defense, wrestling with the Pentagon's budget and reining in the armed services' lobbying for more money.
Neither General Powell nor Mr. Rumsfeld have appointed their senior aides — a point Mr. Rumsfeld noted when he made his first public appearances as President Bush's defense secretary today. Only today did Mr. Bush hold formal ceremonies at the White House to swear in General Powell and Mr. Rumsfeld, his two most important foreign policy advisers along with Vice President Dick Cheney and his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice.
As of last year, the United States had 7,519 nuclear warheads on missiles, submarines or bombers, while Russia had 6,464. Under the second strategic arms control treaty, or Start II, both countries are supposed to reduce their arsenals to roughly 3,000 to 3,500 warheads.
Russia's Parliament ratified Start 2 last year, though with conditions that many Republicans in Congress say they oppose. The two countries have also agreed in principal to a third round of negotiations aimed at reducing the numbers to 2,000 to 2,500 warheads.
Asked today when the administration would begin negotiations with Mr. Putin, General Powell replied simply, "In due time."
Mr. Bush, as he did during the campaign, indicated that he was prepared, after a Pentagon review, to move ahead with reductions in the American arsenal unilaterally. Though he did not spell out his rationale today, he suggested in the campaign that such steps would clear the way for a new era in arms control and, possibly, Russian acceptance of an American missile defense.
At the Pentagon today, Mr. Rumsfeld restated his argument that the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, negotiated with the Soviet Union in 1972, was no longer relevant at a time when more countries were developing missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads and striking the United States.
"We're in a very different world," said Mr. Rumsfeld, who served as secretary of defense under President Gerald R. Ford. "The Soviet Union is gone. The principal threats facing the United States are not the fear of a strategic nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union."
Although he did not explicitly advocate withdrawing from the treaty, he added that he believed "it ought not inhibit a country, a president, an administration, a nation from fashioning offensive and defensive capabilities that will provide for our security in a notably different national security environment."
Mr. Rumsfeld declined to say how quickly the Pentagon would move ahead with development of a missile system, including whether to begin construction of a sophisticated new radar on Shemya Island, Alaska, this summer, a step certain to antagonize the Russians, the Chinese and even some allies. He did say it was among the issues he would focus on in meetings next week.
A senior adviser to Mr. Rumsfeld said today that lifting the constraints imposed by the A.B.M. treaty would allow the Pentagon to develop a limited ground-based system, like than the one being considered under President Bill Clinton, more quickly. The adviser also said officials could more quickly expand the defense to include sea-based missile interceptors.
The adviser said "the contours of something" could be ready within 60 days
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Bush Repeats Call for Arms Reduction and Missile Shield
it is the logical sucessor to reagans nutty "star wars" idea...
but things that i've found so far point toward rumsfeld:
http://www.fpif.org/presentations/01...hartung01.html
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