Consequence of building the National Missile Defense

This of course does not stop the Bush administration from building this system. The administration insists on pursuing this until they get the results they need. Given enough time and money this system will work. This project is given the top priority and it has unlimited budget (GPO par11).

Another controversial issue about the National Missile Defense system is the cost to the American public. In his book David Multimer called ‘The

Weapons State: Proliferation and the Framing of Security ‘ says that:

“Effective missile defenses are difficult to build – not the least because America’s adversaries have every incentive to find ways to defeat them – and that the investment of billions would produce only a high-tech sieve.”

This project will be the single most expensive project in the history of the United States. The Chairman of the Missile Defense Program and the AMB

Treaty Committee, Senator Joseph R. Biden, estimates the cost to be between sixty billion and one hundred billion dollars (2). And perhaps the price might go up to half a trillion dollars, depending on the exact system that the US government develops (GPO 15). This amount will mean more taxes from every citizen. Instead of spending this amount of money building the

National Missile Defense system, the US government would be better served paying off the national debt to its citizens.

As we all know the recent attacks of September 11 weren’t nuclear; they were realized by using civilian airplanes as a weapon. These attacks claimed more than three thousands lives. Considering the unavailability of nuclear weapons at present, these kinds of attacks are more likely to occur than nuclear attacks. With this notion in mind, the US government will be better of focusing its attention, and money on increasing security at airports, malls, or other public places. More attention should be paid on water reserves, or campuses.

One of more serious consequence of building the National Missile

Defense is that it would be a violation of the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972, signed between the Soviet Union and the United States as a way to control the danger of nuclear war. The treaty bans the building of weapons of such capacity (Nordeen 226). The US government can start this project only with the consent of Russia, and the Russian president didn’t give its approval for the violation of this treaty. The Bush administration did violate this treaty in 2002. The Us government has to remember that, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia still is in possession of all of its nuclear arsenal. This violation means that now the Russian

Federation has all right to start developing counter measure so that the

United States defense system could be penetrated. The violation of this treaty also means that the Russian Federation is allowed to help any country in the development of its nuclear weapons. Already, Russia is helping Iran in developing its nuclear facilities, and as we know Iran is one of potential threats to the US. The violation of this treaty puts no restraints on Russia’s assistance to any country willing to build nuclear weapons. There are many countries willing to develop such facilities for offensive or defensive purposes, and they are willing to pay handsome amount for such assistance. Of course this has not started as of yet, but surely implications are there.

At present the only state that has the power to launch weapons of mass destruction against the United States is Russia. Dean Rusk, Secretary of

State in 1984 stated, “It would be foolish in the extreme to suppose that we could obtain any significant or lasting advantage over the Soviets in space weaponry” (Cordesman). Although the Russia of today is not the same as the Soviet Union of 1984, it is still very powerful in the field of nuclear weapons. The violation of this treaty would greatly encourage

Russia to upgrade its weapons. An upgrade of nuclear weapons by Russia could trigger another dangerous arm race, which would lead to Cold War once again. The author of ‘Defending America’ James Lindsay states that:

“Most countries, including many of America’s closest allies, warn that missile defense will trigger an arms race jeopardize three decades of arms control efforts.”

Everybody remembers how dreadful those times were. The infusion of constant fear and anxiety on peoples’ minds were beyond what words could express.

But in the absence of a National Missile Defense system, Russia is currently willing to decrease its production of nuclear weapons (Ellis 89).These statistics show the superiority of Russia in nuclear weapons. It would be a good move by the United States to do the same. In fact, these two nations could cooperate in fighting against the unconventional production of nuclear weapons by other states. The statistics in the book called ‘Strategic Threats and National Missile Defenses’ by Anthony

Cordesman show that the US posses 33,500 nuclear weapons, and Russia posses

62,500 nuclear weapons. If the United States agreed on nuclear arm reduction, then this move would reduce the risk of the United States being attacked by weapons of mass destruction. Once this nuclear arms race between the Russian Federation and the United States begins, the consequences of could be devastating, both for the US and Russia as well as for the entire globe, resulting in ultimate destruction of the planet earth.