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Following is a fact sheet from Kerry-Edwards 2004:
"Despite this administration's near obsession with missile defense, the greatest threat facing our homeland comes from terrorists who would do us harm. In the months preceding 9/11 George W. Bush and his closest advisors were preoccupied with missile defense and their misunderstanding about the threats we face continues to this day. John Kerry believes an effective missile defense is crucial to our national security strategy. But John Kerry also understands the importance of facing our most pressing national security threats while continuing to develop and deploy a national missile defense which we know will work," said Kerry National Security Adviser Rand Beers.
WHO DOESN'T "UNDERSTAND THE THREATS OF THE 21st CENTURY"?
May 2001 -- Bush Said "Most Urgent Threat" Was Ballistic Missiles.
Bush: "Most troubling of all, the list of these countries includes some of the World's least responsible states. Unlike the Cold War, today's most urgent threat stems not from thousands of ballistic missiles in the Soviet hands, but from a small number of missiles in the hands of these states, states for whom terror and blackmail are a way of life. They seek weapons of mass destruction to intimidate their neighbors, and to keep the United States and other responsible nations from helping allies and friends in strategic parts of the world." (Bush, Address at the National Defense University, 5/1/01)
May 2001 - Kerry Said "Immediate Threat" was From Terrorists and "Non-State Actors."
Kerry: "But let me underscore that missile defense will do nothing to address what the Pentagon itself considers a much more likely and immediate threat to the American homeland from terrorists and from nonstate actors, who can quietly slip explosives into a building, unleash chemical weapons into a crowded subway, or send a crude nuclear weapon into a busy harbor." (Kerry, Speech on Senate Floor, 5/2/01)
Before 9-11, Bush Administration Didn't Focus on Terrorist Threat, Highlighted Missile Defense
Bush's Pre-9/11 Focus on Missile Defense Over Terrorism is Widely Recognized. A Washington Post editorial noted that "By now it's common knowledge that before Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration's attention was focused not on terrorism but on other national security priorities -- most notably missile defense." (Washington Post, 4/26/04)
Rumsfeld Threatened Veto Of Plan To Divert Money From Missile Defense to Terroirsm. On September 9, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld threatened to urge a presidential veto of a Senate plan to divert $600 million from missile defense systems to counterterrorism. Instead of anti-terror planning, "the whole Bush national- security team was obsessed with setting up a national system of missile defense." (Time, 8/12/02)
Rice Focused On Matters "Other Than Terrorism." In the months prior to the September 11 attacks, Condoleezza Rice "was usually fixed on matters other than terrorism, for reasons that had to do with her own background, her management style and the unusually close, personal nature of her relationship with Mr. Bush." (New York Times, 4/5/04)
Rice's Major Foreign Policy Address - Scheduled For 9/11/01 - Was to Focus on Missile Defense, Downplay Terrorist Threat. The Washington Post reported that "on Sept. 11, 2001, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to outline a Bush administration policy that would address 'the threats and problems of today and the day after, not the world of yesterday' -- but the focus was largely on missile defense, not terrorism from Islamic radicals." Rice's speech was postponed by the terrorist attacks, and while "it mentioned terrorism" it "did so in the context used in other Bush administration speeches in early 2001: as one of the dangers from rogue nations, such as Iraq, that might use weapons of terror, rather than from the cells of extremists now considered the main security threat to the United States. (Washington Post, 4/1/04, emphasis added)
Two Days Before 9/11, Rice Was Highlighting Missile Defense. "What we're ready to do is to get serious about the business of dealing with this emergent threat. Ballistic missiles are ubiquitous now. It's accidental launch, but it is also the fact that this technology rests in the hands of all kinds of irresponsible states." (NBC, "Meet the Press," 9/9/01)
KERRY HAS LONG RECOGNIZED THE URGENT THREAT OF INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM
Kerry: "In today's world, in a non-cold-war world, the greatest threat is a rusty freighter hobbling its way into New York Harbor, or nearby, and has the potential to launch a cruise missile at us, or the greater threat is some group of terrorists assembling in New York the multiple parts of a nuclear weapon and holding us hostage, or, as we saw in Japan with the sarin gas attack, terrorists who want to cripple the community through chemical or biological warfare." (Kerry, Speech Senate Floor, 6/6/00)
Kerry Recognizes Missile Defense is only Part of an Effective Defense Strategy. The administration's proposals will now go to Congress, which will debate whether to fund the project. Doubters include Senator John F. Kerry. "National missile defense is only one part of a comprehensive approach to national security, and the Bush administration seems to spend a disproportionate amount of time, attention, and money trying to make it law," the Massachusetts Democrat said yesterday. (Boston Globe, December 19, 2002)
As President, Kerry Will Build a Realistic, Effective Defense Against Ballistic Missiles. Regarding a sensible missile defense system, John Kerry has stated: "I support the development of an effective defense against ballistic missiles that is deployed with maximum transparency and consultation with U.S. allies and other major powers. If there is a real potential of a rogue nation firing missiles at any city in the United States, responsible leadership requires that we make our best, most thoughtful efforts to defend against that threat. The same is true of accidental launch. If it were to happen, no leader could ever explain not having chosen to defend against the disaster when doing so made sense. I opposed the Bush Administration's decisions to proceed with early deployment of a national missile defense system and to abrogate the ABM treaty, destroying an important arms control achievement while also doing damage to important international relationships."
Kerry Will Streamline Large Weapons Programs Such as Missile Defense To Pay For Larger Army-Will Add 40,000 Troops to Active Duty, Not Iraq. John Kerry will add 40,000 troops to the active duty Army to prevent and prepare for other possible conflicts. Kerry will also emphasize electronics, advanced sensors and munitions in a 'systems of systems' approach to transformation, reducing total expenditures on missile defense, and further reforming the acquisition process, this proposal can be made budget neutral. (www.JohnKerry.com/issues/national_security/newthreats.html)
Kerry Wants to Shape National Defense to Defend Against Modern Battles-Not Unproven Missile Defense Systems. "Instead of over- relying on weapons and tactics to fight the battles of the past, against enemies out in the desert or on open seas, we must build mobile and modern forces to prevail against terrorists hiding in caves or in the heart of a city. We must broaden our capabilities to create a military ready for any mission, from armored battle to urban warfare to homeland security. Yes, we must invest in missile defense. But not at the cost of other pressing priorities. We cannot afford to spend billions to deploy an unproven missile defense system. Not only is it not ready, but it's the wrong priority for a war on terror where the enemy strikes with a bomb in the back of a truck, or a vial of anthrax in a briefcase." (Remarks at the Truman Presidential Library, Independence, MO; AP, 6/3/04)
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?ReleaseID=34851 |
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