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Guest Commentary May 30, 2002
Bush and Putin Prove Reagan Right
The Honorable Bob Schaffer
Less than a week after Ronald Reagan was presented the Congressional Gold Medal, President George W. Bush is in Russia cementing an arrangement Reagan's critics said could never be accomplished. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin will sign a landmark arms-control treaty slashing long-range nuclear warheads, while at the same time shredding the flawed 1972 Antiballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. The pact allows the U.S. to finally build and deploy a comprehensive missile defense system, headquartered in Colorado Springs.
"One of the most important contributions we can make is, of course, to lower the level of all arms, and particularly nuclear arms," Reagan said in his now famous March 23, 1983, missile defense speech. "I am directing a comprehensive and intensive effort to define a long-term research and development program to begin to achieve our ultimate goal of eliminating the threat posed by strategic nuclear missiles."
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Reagan's vision was of a future in which U.S. technology would make long-range missiles obsolete -- technology that would "pave the way for arms control measures to eliminate the weapons themselves."
Reagan's critics deprecatingly labeled his plan "Star Wars," predicting the earth would be "turned into a gigantic orbiting bomb."
In its account of the speech, Time magazine (April 4, 1983) opined, "As with many of the President's uncomplicated-sounding proposals, the idea of spaceage missile defenses masks a swarm of complexities. It raises the specter of an arms race in space, which ultimately could be more expensive and dangerous than the one taking place on Earth."
To the contrary, Reagan's doctrine of "peace through strength" hastened the demise of the "Evil Empire." The end of the Cold War was finally in sight.
"When President Reagan started this program, Soviet intelligence had already obtained information on the 'Star Wars' program, and they were scared," former Soviet KGB operative Oleg Kalugin would later admit. "They were convinced they would never be able to match the U.S. program for purely financial reasons."
In time, Reagan's passion for peace outpaced the Soviet economy, leading to the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the break up the Soviet empire, and the death of communist totalitarianism.
In January, Bush picked up where Reagan left off, boldly announcing his intention to withdraw the U.S. from the ABM Treaty. Predictably, partisans on the Left prophesied doom. Again, they were wrong.
Rather than escalating an arms race, the specter of a robust missile shield has produced the opposite result. To the astonishment of those who said it could not be done, Bush and Putin will, on May 24, sign an arms-control treaty reducing long-range nuclear warheads from roughly 6,000 on each side to between 1,700 and 2,200.
Exactly three weeks later, the first day the U.S. will be freed from the ABM Treaty, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency will begin construction of underground silos for the first missile interceptors, located at Fort Greely near Fairbanks, Alaska. Once banned by the ABM Treaty, the Fort Greely program will consist of five missile-interceptor silos and related communications systems. Headquartered in Colorado Springs, the missile defense system will involve a sizeable defense investment in Colorado. Currently, the military tracks missile launches around the world from its primary ground station at Buckley Air Force Base near Aurora.
Sadly, Democrats in the Senate are fighting to gut the missile defense program, insisting they know better than the experts how to defend the country from the enemies of the United States. They prefer instead a policy of talking America's enemies out of attacking us.
According to Bush, the land-based intercept program should be only the beginning. America must continue to ignore the whining of liberals still baffled by the success of Reagan's courage. We must fully fund a robust ballistic missile defense program, encompassing a variety of technologies, including spacebased missile-intercepting technology.
Though it has been available for years, the United States has delayed this technology because of treaty restrictions.
Now, thanks to President Bush, Americans will soon be free to build and deploy a comprehensive missile defense shield while at the same time achieving an historic anti-proliferation agreement.
In our nation's 226-year history, Congressional Gold Medals have been awarded only 135 times. Beginning with George Washington, each honoree made an important contribution to our nation in the face of skepticism and against the predictions of those who harp "it can't be done."
Ronald Reagan is in good company: No Congressional Gold Medal has ever been awarded to an advocate of a weaker America.
Bob Schaffer, a Republican, represents the 4th Congressional District of Colorado in the U.S. House of Representatives. The above commentary has been adapted from a speech Rep. Schaffer delivered on the floor of the House, May 23, 2002. To contact him, Click Here.
The above column has been distributed by PoliticsOL.com.
