"I am concerned that plans to deploy national missile defenses
threaten not only current bilateral and multilateral arms control
agreements but also ongoing and future disarmament and
non-proliferation efforts"--Kofi Annan, United Nations
Secretary-General
Our corporatist National Post editorial board is strongly
supporting President Bush's denunciation of the 1972 ABM treaty and
looks forward to Canada's cooperation with the U.S. to build the
National Missile Defense (NMD) as every other nation is condemning
this unilateral move.
The National Post editorial board mentions that there are moral
and practical reasons for Canada to support the NMD. I disagree with
these reasons since there is no moral significance to weaponize the
skies and there are no practical benefits in increasing military
spending other than increasing the propensity to wage new wars.
This editorial board states that President Bush, our champion of
liberty and democracy, has every right to use the technology to
defend its citizens. Again, I disagree that our President Bush is a
champion of liberty and democracy as New York Times columnist
William Safire has stated that this president has assumed
dictatorial power while other journalists have accused President
Bush's business interests in the energy and weaponry industry to
interfere with his national and foreign policies. And again, the
technology to be used in the NMD doesn't make sense as American
scientists have stated that the tests for hitting a bullet with a
bullet are rigged and performed under pre-established laboratory
conditions.
The President states that the NMD system will protect North
America from ballistic attack by rogue nations with weapons of mass
destruction. Again, the so called rogue nations don't have the
sophisticated capability to launch missile attacks with weapons of
mass destruction and it would be better for all of us to increase
our security on earth by being able to stop terrorists armed with
box cutters.
As a final advice to President Bush and our National Post
editorial board I suggest that the establishment of a National
Healthcare Defense would be a much better choice than the
overspending in a National Missile Defense as some 40 million
Americans have no health care coverage.
References
Pertinent article published in Ensign
Let's get behind the missile shield, National Post, December 15,
2001 http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20011215/876823.html
Pushing Bush's Agenda using the War against Terrorism: Weakening
people and Strengthening Oligarchy, by Mario deSantis, November 18,
2001 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2001_400/desantis482/oligarchy.html
ABM Treaty Withdrawal an Attack on American Security; Statement
by the Federation of American Scientists, U.S. Newswire, Contact:
Michael A. Levi of the Federation of American Scientists, December
13, 2001 http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/1213-147.html
Foolishness on the ABM, Editor Matthew Rothschild comments on the
news of the day, December 14, 2001 http://www.progressive.org/webex/wx1214a01.html
Quotations on Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty/National
Missile Defense (NMD) http://www.basicint.org/nuk_00global_quotes.htm |