The Association of State Green Parties

Media Advisory:
Greens Oppose Bush's National Missile Defense Scheme, Demand a Halt to the "Militarization of Space"

Tuesday, May 15, 2001


Contacts:
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net 
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator 202-518-5624, scottmclarty@yahoo.com  

Corporate welfare missile system is an offensive threat that will increase global tensions.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Association of State Green Parties (ASGP) urges President Bush and Congress to abandon plans to revive President Reagan's "Star Wars" pipe dream of a missile defense shield, earlier called Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and now called National Missile Defense (NMD). 

On June 10, 2001, many Greens will participate in a rally for the "National Mobilization to Oppose Star Wars" to take place in Lafayette Park across from the White House in Washington, D.C. ASGP also supports the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and will participate in the Network's International Day of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space on October 13.

Nuclear-powered space-based missile defense represents a collaboration among every occupant of the White House -- Republican and Democrat -- over the past generation. Reagan introduced it; Bush Sr. tested it (at which time its failure and waste were revealed); Clinton revived it; and Bush Jr. now seeks full-scale implementation.  Both George W. Bush and Al Gore supported NMD during the 2000 election campaign; Green candidate Ralph Nader strongly opposed it. 

Greens demand that funding and resources for programs like NMD be redirected towards social needs, urban revitalization, and environmental clean-up here on Earth; that the U.S. research and implement alternative sources and uses for energy; that nuclear power programs, which cause threats to public safety and poisonous waste products difficult to dispose, be dismantled; that nuclear weapons be banned and eliminated;  and that the U.S. lead the world in seeking peaceful resolution to international conflicts, without the threat of nuclear attack and retaliation.

"The U.S. Military's goal is offense, not defense, with a specific purpose to our corporate interests," said ASGP co-chair Annie Goeke.  "This scheme is not only causing severe international tensions but is part of the greedy plan to increase sales in US military weapons as we are the number one exporter in the global market."  

Greens raise the following specific objections to NMD: 

  • The last attempt to develop NMD was a failure and a waste of over $100 billion in taxpayers' money. Missile defense could only destroy a few crude Iraqi SCUD missiles during the Persian Gulf War. The Pentagon's cost estimates for NMD were surpassed by 19 times the real expense of the program. Former Star Wars senior scientist Aldric Saucier wrote, "The project steadily sacrificed real defense needs and actual weapons production in favor of extending the profits of contractors for as long as possible. The revolving door between the Pentagon and SDI contractors enriched a long list of military officers who left for greener pastures in the private sector. Star Wars is largely a paper program producing research and development studies. The reports are a shameless waste. Multiple contractors are assigned to do the same work and then to do it again and again. As a rule, the studies are not read. They get stored at different locations outside the Pentagon until room is needed for new ones. Then they are sometimes destroyed without the notice required by law." (The New York  Times, March 9, 1992)

  • NMD violates the Partial Test-Ban Treaty of 1963, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, and the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia.  Instead of guaranteeing security, it will reignite an arms race. According to the Global Network, "The CIA acknowledges Russia and China will beef up their offensive nuclear arsenals to counter Star Wars system. The arms race would then likely spread to India and Pakistan. The ABM treaty and all other arms treaties would be scuttled. Nuclear anarchy would result." 

  • NMD will offer no defense against low-level land-based transfer of nuclear weapons, a more likely method of delivery in coming years as nuclear weapons technology proliferates and nations without  missile systems develop nuclear bombs.

  • Bush's "layered" land-, sea- and space-based NMD program will cost over $200 billion. NMD constitutes a huge taxpayer-funded gift to defense contractors -- which have spent over $40 million on campaign contributions and lobbying over the last two years to win these handouts -- and to revive special treats for CEOs, lobbyists, and military brass. In 1992, Rep. John Conyers said, "What we  are discovering now is that 'Club SDI' has some pretty attractive travel benefits for its officials. The 1991 budget for travel to Hawaii alone by top SDI officials was $118,817, which included posh Maui hotel stays when adequate military VIP lodging was available." 

  • NMD sets up a "U.S. Space Command" to control "the space dimension of military operations to protect U.S. interests and investment." The Pentagon wants to deploy the space-based laser as the early "follow-on" technology to missile defense. The space-based laser would be used to knock out other countries' satellites, giving the U.S. Space Command "control and domination" of space. 

  • The development of nuclear space technology creates hazardous working conditions on earth. A March 16, 2000 plutonium accident at Los Alamos National Laboratory exposed six employees to potentially deadly doses of radiation. "There is an ethical issue that is always left out of these discussions, and that is the health effects on the workers and the communities in just making these weapons of mass destruction -- never mind the unthinkable deployment of them," said New Mexico Green Carol Miller. 

MORE INFORMATION:

Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/

search: dpol, fpol, evpol

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