Star Wars Press Release
When President Bush announced that the United States was withdrawing
from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty to pursue his Star
Wars scheme, Peace Action's national office had this response.
"Radical Unilateralists" in Administration lambasted
on ABM withdrawal
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 12, 2001
Scott Lynch, Communications Director
WASHINGTON, DC: Peace
Action, the nation's largest peace and disarmament organization,
today lambasted the Bush Administration's plan to unilaterally withdraw
from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in order to pursue
its dream of a Star Wars anti-missile weapon system. The announcement
to withdraw from the ABM treaty, according to media reports, could
come in a matter of days. As provided by the treaty, the U.S. withdrawal
from the treaty would become effective in six months after the announcement.
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"U.S. and world security is much better served by getting
serious about nuclear non-proliferation and the ultimate elimination
of nuclear weapons"

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"What missile defense?" asked Peace Action executive
director Kevin Martin "It's pathetic that after having spent
$100 billion on anti-missile weapons since Reagan, that all we have
is a missile system that can sometimes hit a target that has a beacon
that guides the interceptor to it. The Bush administration is ready
to destroy an arms reduction framework that has been successfully
reducing nuclear weapons for thirty years and replace it with, essentially,
nothing."
"The Bush Administration exhibits a theological belief in
the utterly irrelevant (as we saw Sept. 11) 'missile defense' system.
U.S. and world security is much better served by getting serious
about nuclear non-proliferation and the ultimate elimination of
nuclear weapons" continued Martin."The radical unilateralists
in the Bush Administration have triumphed. The Wolfowitz, Bolton
and Pearle sphere think U.S. military, political and economic power
is so great that we don't need to be a good global citizen-that
we can and should strut about the world like a schoolyard bully.
Obviously, they think the rule of law should only apply to the weak."
"However, in seeking unilateral solutions at the expense of
international cooperation, they ensure that instability, insecurity
and, ultimately, terrorism will be with us for a long time to come.
They are laying the groundwork today for the next massive, asymmetrical
attack on the United States. The big winners in this announcement
are Boeing, Lockheed Martin, TRW and Raytheon, who will continue
to reap immense profits from Star Wars contracts whether the system
ever works or not. The big losers are the American people and American
security," said Martin.
"It is now time for congressional leadership to right the
course of our foreign policy that has been high-jacked by the radical
unilateralists in the Administration. We've got six months to mobilize
public support to preserve the ABM treaty and avert a nuclear arms
race," said Scott Lynch, Peace Action's Communications Director.
"The Administration has now ensured that Star Wars and the
ABM treaty will be big issues in next year's election campaigns.
The choice for candidates is simple: do you want nuclear arms control
or nuclear anarchy?"
Peace Action, founded in 1957 as SANE (Committee for a Sane Nuclear
Policy), has 85,000 members nationwide.
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