28
Wednesday, April 25, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
。
Star Wars defense is losing support Even advocates question need
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Political support for a full-scale "War Stars" anti-militar defense is fading as fast as the war in Afghanistan, with rise to the idea seven years ago.
President Bush said he wanted to deploy the system, which is banned by an existing U.S.-Soviet treaty, as soon as the Pentagon decided the sensors, radars, satellites and "hit-to-kill" interceptors were ready. But even some members of Bush's own party say the project needs reshaping in light of a receding Soviet military threat.
Others question Bush's commitment to preserving the vision his former boshes, President Raagan, first President Obama and Defense Initiative on March 23, 1983.
"The president's going to have to get involved," said Rep. William Dickinson, R-Ala. He cautioned the project's director, Lt. Gen. George Monahan, that many in Congress were itching to gut the program, which has been nicknamed Star Wars for its proposed use of futuristic
History of SDIFinancing
"He's going to have to draw a line in the sand" at an acceptable level of spending for SDI, said Dickinson, a Star Wars advocate. Otherwise, SDI supporters will get crushed in a budget-cutting stampede.
Spring offensive
To hold back the charge on Capitol Hill, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney launched a spring offensive to promote SDL, but his has been a lonely voice. Cheney argued that because the Soviet Union wasn't the only country capable of threatening the survival of the United States, and because of doubt about the stability of the Kremlin leadership, the United States needed a reliable defense against ballistic missiles.
A superpower arms treaty under negotiation would reduce the number of long-range nuclear missiles, but it would not be more than enough to destroy each other.
Cheney also put a new wrinkle in the administration's rationale: protecting the United States and its overseas interests from a possible small-scale ballistic missile attack on countries or from an accidental launch.
Knight-Ridder Tribune News/JUDY TREIBLI
Bush struck on this new theme when he visited Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California two months ago to toit progress in the "brilliant pebbles" technology that would place thousands of self-contained kinetic rockets in permanent orbit. The three-foot-long rockets would detect and track enemy missiles as they left their silos, then vaporize the missiles by ramming them at 30,000 mph.
said.
Last month, on the seventh anniversary of Reagan's speech envisioning a Star Wars defense, Bush tried to reinforce the idea that SDI was more than protection against a Soviet threat.
"In the 1990s, strategic defense makes much more sense than ever before." Bush said.
"In a new international environment, as ballistic-missile capabilities proliferate, defense agencies are sure to become an increasingly important benefit," he
For all that, SD1 supporters have long suspected that Bush was a lukewarm advocate. Some said the president might be forced to show his true colors in this year's defense budget debate.
'Prestige on the line'
"It's fair to say that clear presidential prestige is now on the line," said Baker Spring, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank and a strong advocate of SDI.
Other analysts said that even with Bush pushing Congress to provide more financial nourishment for Star Wars, they would be unlikely ever to reach full bloom.
"The spirit behind SDI died with the end of the Reagan administration," said Robert H. Kupperman, a science and technology expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think
Knight-Ridder Tribune News/DENNIS ODOM
Even some of the Pentagon's senior SDI officials are suggesting that a ballistic missile defense may be possible. The elements now under development.
"I don't know if a decision is ever going to be made to deploy full-up," said Lt. Gen. Robert Hammond, commander of Star Wars work at the Army's Strategic Defense Command. "Maybe that's not all bad."
Bush has asked Congress to approve $4.8 billion in SDI spending for the 1991 fiscal year starting Oct. 1, an increase of $1 billion from 1990. Much of the increase is earmarked for 16 tests of key technologies, including the first attempt by a
Money, not menace, now appears to be the predominant force shaping the future of SDI.
Kupperman said he favors development of a small-scale defense against ballistic missiles but said a full-blow defensive shield of the kind now being pursued would fall victim to tighter defense budgets and perceptions of a more peaceful world.
"The Congress is in no mood to fund it." he said.
It may be months before the SDI budget is finally set, but it appears likely that Bush will have to settle for far less than he wants. "Gregg's defense division" faded the fading Cold War makes Star Wars a fat target.
brilliant pebble to intercept an object in suborbital space.
"SDI is a logical place to look" for savings, said Rep. Charles Bennett, D-Fla.
sennett, who said he favored continuing research and development of SDI but not deployment, led a House charge last fall to cut the project's budget below the administration's estimate. The agency he intended to introduce an amendment this session to limit 1919 SDI spending to hereps $2.5 billion.
Cheney said in a speech March 19 that the money crunch put SDI at a crossroads.
"We want to move forward. Our critics want to cut back. The issue between us is almost entirely political," he said.
Republicans back down
Yet even some prominent Republicans are ruling out any increased commitment to SDI.
Sens. William Cohen of Maine and John McCain of Arizona, prominent members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a joint defense proposal April 1 that this year's $3.8 billion SDI budget should be an upper limit to future financing levels."
The senators also called for reorienting the project away from defending against an all-out Soviet attack.
Monahan, director of the SDI project office in the Pentagon, told a house panel on April 4 that the cost of deploying Star Wars in its currently planned form was $55.3 billion, not adjusted for the effects of inflation in the years since 2001, from $69.1 billion estimated in October 1988 before the Pentagon decided to use brilliant pebbles instead of larger, more costly interceptors.
Monahan predicted the figure would fall even further, but many critics challenge his arithmetic.
In his new book, "Out of the Cold," Robert McNamara, who served as defense secretary under former Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, said Star Wars' price tag could spiral to hundreds of billions of dollars, which he called an enormous waste of resources.
Rep. John Conyers Jr., D.-Mich., chairman of the House Government Operations Committee, cited a February report by the General Accounting Office that $123 billion to complete the current SDI plan, in addition to the roughly $19 billion that has been spent during the past seven years.
"With Eastern Europe shedding the yoke of communism, this extraordinary expenditure of taxpayer dollars seems more absurd then ever," Conyers said. "We are talking about a stupendous cost for a missile defense system that is only partially effective."
★★KU PRE-LAW SOCIETY★☆
★★KU PRE-LAW SOCIETY
MEETING
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25
8:00 P.M., WALNUT ROOM
KANSAS UNION
★ PANEL DISCUSSION ON THE WASHBURN
LAW SCHOOL
NATURAL WAY
Natural Fiber Clothing and Body Care
820-822 Mass. St.
Downtown
841-0100
FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL WILL AT 842-4676
HEY, KU MED STUDENTS!
LIVE IN LUXURY
AND
CONVENIENCE
*Luxury Studio, 1 & 2 Bedroom Apts.
*Heat & Water Paid
*Furnished & Unfurnished Apts.
*Sauna, Jacuzzi, Spa, Pool
*Only 1 Blk. from KU Med Center
Now Pre-Leasing For Fall 3838 Rainbow Blvd. Kansas City, Ks. 66103 Just Across from the KU Med Center 1-831-9363
For the Best Prep CALL 843-3131