Americas
Viewpoints
Misguided Missile Defense
MOSCOW Rossiyskaya Gazeta (official), July 12: Alas, the second flop in a row has not cooled heads in the White House and the Pentagon. Bill Clinton could not pick a worse time for his space games as far as the Democratic Party is concerned. NMD [National Missile Defense] is a slapdash job, done in a hurry, in time for the fall elections.…This program is one of the most ill-conceived and irresponsible projects ever undertaken by the Washington administration, the Republicans assert. They may be right.
—Vladimir Lapsky
MOSCOW Nezavisimaya Gazeta (liberal), July 11: The failure of the third ABM [antiballistic missile] test has robbed NMD enthusiasts of the ammo to defend it. After Saturday’s fiasco, all Bill Clinton can say is that a decision on NMD has to be delayed. The president is in a jam. As chief executive, he must be iffy about what verdict to declare eventually....With NMD deployment aborted, Moscow has gained quite a few strategic possibilities, as well as time. But celebrating officially and castigating the Americans publicly would be wrong....Any unflattering comment from our side would only cause hawks on Capitol Hill and in the White House to put more pressure on the still-hesitant Clinton.
—Dmitry Gornostayev
LONDON The Guardian (liberal), July 12: It has been a difficult few days for Lieutenant-General Ronald Kadish, director of America’s Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. At the weekend, he invited friends over to show them his new intercontinental missile defense shield, and, isn’t it always the way, the bloody thing didn’t work....Of course, when it comes to military spending, the cash is always available....If the smart bombs were that smart they would decommission themselves and redirect the much-needed funding toward health, education, and overseas aid. It was not the missile that missed the target this week. It was all that money that went up in smoke with it.
PARIS Le Monde (liberal), July 13: The debate is more than anything a political one. The American disregard for the reactions of the international community reminds us, as if we needed a reminder, that we are in the middle of an electoral campaign. This is a time when foreign policy means little, since it does not win votes. One might think that Clinton would take advantage of the situation to postpone making a definitive decision about the NMD. Once again, the most daredevil president in American history could easily wash his hands of a project that has never really interested him, while saying that even his opponents would have done the same thing in his place. But no matter what he decides to do, the decision will not last beyond the elections. Bush would not be held by a meek decision and Gore would at last be his own master.
—Patrice de Beer
BERLIN Berliner Morgenpost (centrist), July 12: Missed opportunities for discussions about NMD should now be taken....The danger that an America, paralyzed by deterrence, can no longer provide its multifaceted protective functions all over the world requires a careful discussion. Remarks referring to the arrogance of the superpower or the military-industrial complex as the initiator of expensive armament programs do not do justice to the significance of the problem. There is, however, a different question, which is...whether a system where a bullet must hit another bullet in flight can ever be made functional.
—Dieter Opitz
TURIN La Stampa (centrist), July 10: Never had a technological failure been hailed so positively. Everybody, or almost everybody, rejoices because the third, crucial space shield test has failed.…It would be a mistake to believe that the matter is over for good....In any case, the pressure continues not only from the big military-industrial complex and the U.S. political right, but also on the part of the U.S. technological-scientific community.
—Aldo Rizzo
BEIJING Renmin Ribao (Communist Party daily), July 7: The United States is held responsible for the deteriorating situation of international disarmament and arms control. U.S. deployment of the NMD system, a plan aimed at strengthening its own offensive and defensive capacity while blunting other countries’ offensive weapons, is an act of sheer selfishness and hegemonism. Going against the main trend of the times, the United States will inevitably end up self-injured. The entire world, including the United States, will never be at peace.
—Zheng Yuan
DAMASCUS Tishrin (semi-official), July 9: Once again, the Pentagon failed to achieve a defensive missile system. Now, the question is: Can such a system provide protection from missile attacks?...Is this a doctrine dating back to the Cold War era? Political agreements that reduce destructive weapons, eliminate spots of international tension, [and] halt wars...are the only guarantee for global security and peace. More arms would only lead to global destruction.
—Adham al-Tawil
