Bush decision on ABM advances Republican dream
Date: 14-Dec-01
Country: USA
Author: Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent
Bush and his top aides have long indicated such a move was likely if the United States could not reach compromise with Russia, the other major nuclear power who is partner to the 1972 Cold War pact.
But his formal decision, expected to be announced yesterday, is a watershed, with critics fearing it could propel the unraveling of an international arms control regime that has helped keep peace for half a century.
"It's an unfortunate step and an unnecessary one," said Lee Feinstein, an arms control expert who worked in the Clinton administration.
"It's unfortunate because it creates a poor model for other countries because it says it's OK to back out of your commitments," he said in an interview. "It's unnecessary because the administration can pursue the kind of missile defense system it says it wants without taking a precipitous step like this."
The decision puts the United States in odd company. The last country to attempt a withdrawal was North Korea, which threatened to pull out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1993, only to suspend the decision three months later.
It is significant that a Republican president is taking action since recent Republican presidents have essentially built the arms control regime Bush is accused of dismantling.
REPUBLICAN LEGACY
Former President Richard Nixon signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Biological Weapons Convention, the ABM treaty and the first SALT agreement, curbing nuclear weapons.
Another Republican president, Ronald Reagan, negotiated the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which reduced nuclear arms, while Bush's father did the START II treaty and the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Many critics, including opposition Democrats and European allies, are further unnerved because Bush this year also torpedoed international efforts to strengthen a treaty banning biological weapons and a treaty putting limits on fossil fuel emissions.
"This president has assembled a national security staff that disdains these accords and envisions a world where international security is guaranteed through force of arms, not negotiations," said Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Bush, backed by many Republican foreign and defense heavyweights, has made clear since he was a candidate in 2000 that he saw the ABM Treaty as a relic of the Cold War, curtailing development of a defense shield against incoming enemy missiles that has been a Republican dream since Reagan.
The pact rests on the principle of mutually assured destruction - the idea that neither Washington nor Moscow would launch a nuclear attack because of certain massive retaliation.
To assuage fears that U.S. missile defenses would leave Russia's nuclear arsenal vulnerable to attack, Bush agreed with President Vladimir Putin to sharply reduce their stockpiles.
Some top Bush aides have been convinced from the start that withdrawal from the ABM pact was the only acceptable strategy.
But to calm fierce opposition from Russia and the Europeans, the United States tried finding a way with Moscow that would allow the United States to vigorously test and build missile defenses while preserving the broad outlines of the treaty, which Russia insists is a cornerstone of nuclear stability.
Bush officials say they have already had to scale back their missile defense tests to stay within ABM limits.
But critics say Washington should have been able to work a deal with the Russians to keep the program going for years without running afoul of ABM curbs. It will take that long to deploy a credible missile defense system, some say.
The U.S. effort, including talks with Russian leaders in Moscow last week, was unsuccessful though one senior official said, "We tried very hard."
On Wednesday, some critics held out hope that negative reaction to Bush's decision would persuade him to hold further negotiations with Moscow