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Guest Commentary: September 10, 2001
U.S. Must Remain Immune from Nuclear Blackmail
The Honorable Donald Rumsfeld
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As we prepare for the security challenges of the 21st Century, U.S. homeland defense takes on increasing importance. For most of U.S. history, we have been blessed with the security advantage of excellent geography, friendly neighbors and a vast ocean buffer. But the Cold war, with its threat of missile and bomber strikes against our territory, ended our geographic advantage. The end of the Cold War has not restored it.
To the contrary, the proliferation of weapons with increasing range and power into the hands of multiple potential adversaries means that the coming years will see an expansion of the risks to U.S. population centers -- as well as those our allies. We will face new threats -- from satchel bombs, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles of varying ranges.
This is a major change in our circumstance. We can no longer count on future conflicts remaining largely contained within their region of origin far from our shores. States unfriendly to the U.S. are working aggressively to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction and a variety of means to deliver them. They are doing so because they want to have the ability to blackmail us by having the capability to strike our people where they live and work -- as well as U.S. friends, allies and deployed forces around the world.
If we remain vulnerable to missile attack, a rogue state that demonstrates the capacity to strike the U.S. or its allies could have the power to hold our people hostage to nuclear or other blackmail. Forging an international coalition to stop an act of aggression by such a state would be difficult if not impossible. Without missile defense, the alternatives would be to do nothing and thereby let aggression stand, to repel the aggression (and thereby put our populations at risk), or to attempt to preempt, a difficult decision for any country.
What is at stake here is not just protecting the American people and our allies from attack -- although that is critical; what is at stake is the U.S. ability to project force to defend peace and freedom in this new century.
Winston Churchill once said: "I hope that I shall never see the day when the forces of right are deprived of the right of force." That is precisely what rogue states intend -- to deny the forces of right the ability to stop aggression and defend freedom in the 21st Century.
If we are to remain engaged in the world, the capability to defend the United States from a range of new asymmetric threats must be a high priority.
Note: Donald Rumsfeld is the U.S. Secretary of Defense. This commentary has been adapted from testimony Secretary Rumsfeld preseneted at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, September 5, 2001.
 How to contact Secretary Rumsfeld
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