Dale Bumpers: “All I heard was, ``The chiefs want it, the Secretary wants it,'' and now the chiefs do not want this. They did not even…”

“All I heard was, ``The chiefs want it, the Secretary wants it,'' and now the chiefs do not want this. They did not even want the $7 billion that was added in committee, and they certainly do not want all this language in the bill. Chairman Shalikashvili does not want it. Nobody wants it except the Armed Services Committee. Our bombers are not on alert. Our cities are not targeted. For the first time in 40 years the American people can get a decent night's sleep. So what are we going to do? We are going to say, ``Wake up, remember the good old days when you couldn't sleep at night for fear of a nuclear war? They are going to bring it back to you in spades.'' There are a lot of things wrong with this bill. I said this morning, and I say again, in my 21 years in the Senate, this is, by far, the worst defense bill that has ever been presented on this floor. Oh, the arrogance of power. Every great nation that has indulged in the arrogance of power, as this bill does, has lived to regret it. The Senator from New Hampshire said we have not violated the ABM Treaty ``yet,'' ``we're just going to interpret it any way we want to and we are going to build a system and we will decide where the demarcation line is.'' Do you think the Russians are going to take something that they feel is prejudicial to their security? The last guy to underestimate Russia was Adolf Hitler. They are on their hunkers, but I will tell you, they will starve their people before they will be humiliated.”