Mike Levin: “It has been my feeling--and I have expressed it in a statement today and on the floor earlier tonight--that we will be…”

“It has been my feeling--and I have expressed it in a statement today and on the floor earlier tonight--that we will be less secure as a result of unilaterally withdrawing from an arms control treaty. It is going to unleash negative forces, measures, countermeasures. We are going to find, I am afraid, in my judgment, that we are going to have a dangerous action/reaction cycle which is going to be precipitated. Defensive technologies are going to make us less secure because of the effort of other countries to overcome those technologies. We are going to have to try to overcome their efforts. I think everybody agrees that the security of this Nation comes first. If I thought for 1 minute that withdrawing from this treaty unilaterally would make us more secure, I would recommend that we withdraw from this treaty. I think it leaves us less secure.”