Statement by Congresswoman Barbara Lee
Congressional Record-House Rep. Barbara Lee--Mr. Speaker, today we are debating are solution commending defense contractors and the military for the ballistic missile defense test of July 14, 2001. This test, not the personnel, mind you, but this test, is really something to condemn, not to commend. The defense industry and the Pentagon have now passed their half-scaled-down, simplified test. This is really nothing to celebrate. When our schools have that failure rate, the President wants to close them down. The military-industrial complex is apparently held to a much lower standard. More fundamentally, this test moves us ever closer to violating the antiballistic missile treaty. We signed and ratified the ABM because we recognize that missile defense systems could destabilize more than they could protect. We cannot go back on our word and abandon this treaty. Peace is really our national security. We cannot be a nation that approaches nonproliferation while really practicing escalation, and that is what this test has taken us down the road to. Instead of leading the way towards responsible disarmament, we are unraveling arms control agreements. We must be a nation that decides where we really want to go. Do we want to go down a path to a new arms race, or forward to a real post-Cold War peace? Attempts to build a national missile defense system are really not enhancing our national security, they are destabilizing the world, which I heard over and over again just 2 weeks ago from our European allies. Violating treaties does not make the world a safer place. Congress should not be celebrating spending billions and billions of dollars on national missile defense. We should be standing by our treaty agreements, we should be working to end nuclear proliferation, and we should be spending that money on vital national needs, such as health care, education, and housing. Yes, there are dangers in the world, but missile defense systems will spark new arms races, nuclear proliferation, violated treaties, and destabilizations, and also billions in spending. These are the fruits of missile defense. That is nothing to celebrate.
WAND's July 2001 NMD statement |
