IMPACTS: LOSS OF ABM TREATY INCREASES THE RISK OF NUCLEAR CONFLICT

IF WE DUMP THE ABM TREATY THE USA WILL BECOME A DANGEROUS ROGUE NATION, INCREASING THE RISK OF NUCLEAR WAR

James Carroll, The Boston Globe, October 19, 1999, SECTION: OP-ED; Pg. A19, HEADLINE: America has become a danger to the world// ln-10-29-99-acs

To their great credit, the heroes of D-Day thus institutionalized an approach to foreign policy and national security that aimed not at nuclear weapons status quo but at nuclear weapons reduction; not at winning nuclear war but at preventing it; not at dominating our rivals but of engaging them in a joint project of nuclear disarmament.

It is sentimental in the extreme to honor the World War II generation while dismantling the hard-won structure of peace that they left to us as their legacy. With a weapons industry hellbent on a new arms race; with a Congress that squanders the future to settle a score; with a callow president who fights only for himself; with presidential candidates defined by what they avoid; and with an American citizenry that cooperates in its own irrelevance, American has become a danger to the world. Even our allies say so.

With the Senate destruction of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Clinton administration's undermining of the ABM Treaty, we, the children of heroes, have ourselves become the rogue nation.

FAILURE TO DEAL WITH EXISTING NUCLEAR FORCES DUE TO ABROGATION OF THE ABM TREATY CREATES A NEW NUCLEAR CRISIS

The Straits Times (Singapore) February 28, 2000; Pg. 42 HEADLINE: Nuclear time bombs //acs-ln

THE world, says former US President Jimmy Carter in an article reprinted in these pages, is facing a nuclear crisis. That might sound like an exaggeration to those who assume that the words "nuclear crisis", like "Cold War", belong to the forgotten 20th century, not the new millennium, but, unfortunately, he is right. The US and Russia are currently not engaged in a single arms-control framework to cut their respective nuclear arsenals; and as for the US and China, they are not only not talking, but they are also not even thinking of talking about talking about nuclear weapons. Worse still, the Start-2 treaty that the US and Russia signed more than seven years ago has yet to be ratified by the Russian Parliament, and there is a good chance it never will if the US decides to deploy a National Missile Defence System in contravention of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. American and Russian missiles continue to be maintained on a "hair-trigger alert" status, meaning they can be launched quickly in a crisis, or by accident; the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) insists these weapons remain the cornerstone of its strategy, and has refused to comply with the "no first use" policy; and in response, Russia has lowered the threshold under which it will consider using nuclear weapons, and has announced that it, too, will abandon "no first use". These developments, singly or together, do not make the current situation as dangerous as that which prevailed at the height of the Cold War, but there is an obvious risk in allowing the present drift in nuclear disarmament to continue. Undisciplined by the rigours of the Cold War, nuclear drift can easily turn into nuclear tragedy.

USA WITHDRAWAL FROM THE ABM TREATY IS A NUCLEAR TRAINWRECK IN THE MAKING

John Donnelly, Globe Staff, The Boston Globe, October 19, 1999, SECTION: NATIONAL/FOREIGN; Pg. A1 HEADLINE: Arms control specialists see risk in US treaty moves // ln-10-29-99-acs

The theory is that a missile defense system would prompt other nations to add offensive firepower, enabling them to overwhelm a defensive system in order to keep the balance of power intact.

Tom Z. Collina, director of arms control for the Cambridge-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said the United States needs "some world view that balances all these threats" and should actively use diplomacy to reduce the threats. He feared that the focus on perceived threats from long-range ballistic missiles from North Korea and Iran had caused some to overlook danger in Russia.

"The last thing the administration should want to do is pull out of a treaty with Russia," Collina said yesterday. But he said that could happen in the coming months.

"I see this as a train wreck in the making," he said.