Countering the Growing Missile Threat

America faces a growing missile threat from abroad — along with the prospect of huge defense cuts. Something’s wrong with this equation.

U.S.-Japan Joint Statement to Permit Interceptor Exports

U.S. President Barack Obama (R) meets with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC. The alliance between Japan and the United States is the "cornerstone" of East Asian security, Obama said Tuesday as he welcomed Aso to the White House.

The United States and Japan are expected in a new joint statement to state that cooperatively developed missile interceptors can be exported to third-party nations, Kyodo News reported on Tuesday (see GSN, May 26).

Opinion: did Obama change his mind on Missile Defense?

Opinion piece written by E. Thomas McClanahan for the Kansas City Star.

When President Barack Obama came into office, many people (this writer included), expected him to mothball the nation’s missile defense program, much as President Bill Clinton had done. During his campaign, Obama gave lip service to the concept but promised to slice funding for “unproven” systems.

Giving Away the Farm

OPINION:

BY R. JAMES WOOLSEY, REBECCAH HEINRICHS

President Barack Obama’s administration recently threatened to veto the defense budget, citing “serious concerns” over provisions that limit the U.S. missile defense know-how that the White House is permitted to share with Moscow. This is the sort of information that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in his earlier days, would have assigned his spies to steal. Through its single-minded pursuit of “resetting” relations with Russia, the Obama administration may simply be willing to hand over this information and, in doing so, weaken U.S. national security.

Politico Opinion Piece – Spelling Pentagon waste: MEADS

The following is  a re-post of an opinion piece by Tom Schatz from Citizens Against Government Waste. It is not meant to be a representation of MDAA’s opinion, but is merely part of the entire missile defense picture.

Republicans campaigned in 2010 to reduce the deficit by cutting spending. They promised to cut $100 billion in non-defense discretionary spending in the first fiscal year.

But defense covers nearly two-thirds of all discretionary spending. While the Republicans’ initial plan excluded defense, the fiscal year 2012 budget approved by the House in April agreed with Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ plan to locate $178 billion in savings through fiscal year 2016; $100 billion would be reinvested in defense and $78 billion cut outright.

Frank Gaffney Op-Ed: Anti-missilephobia; Team Obama schemes for further weakening of U.S. defensive shield

Frank Gaffney

What are we to make of President Obama’s attitude toward U.S. missile defenses? His past positions, his actions as president to date and the secret negotiations his administration has under way with Russia bespeak an alarming, ideologically driven hostility to the idea of protecting the American people and their allies from missile-delivered threats.

Given the irrationality of such an attitude in light of the intensifying dangers such threats represent, the Obama attitude might best be described as “anti-missilephobia.” Will Congress accommodate or counteract this potentially suicidal disorder?

Outside Opinion Piece: Resetting Missile Defenses – James Carafano Analysis

James Carafano

What’s changed in the last few years? Pretty much both political parties now agree that missile defenses are integral to America’s national security. They serve to protect and defend the homeland from the threat of ballistic missile attack. Defenses cover US deployed forces and assets overseas. They also safeguard friendly and allied nations.

There is consensus as well that there are threats worth defending against. Currently, at least 30 countries in the world have ballistic missile technologies. True, some of these nations are our friends. The mere fact, however, that ballistic programs have become so ubiquitous demonstrates that robust defenses should now also be axiomatic.

Editorial: We Can’t Delay This Treaty

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates combined to write and Op-ed in the Washington Post. In the piece they urged the Senate to approve the New START treaty. They pointed to a number of reasons why the treaty should be ratified and highlighted what it will and will not do. Foremost in what they said it would not do is limit the United States’ ability to deploy effective missile defense. This piece is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect MDAA’s view on the New START treaty.