Political Quotes

“Mr. President, this bill is a head-on assault on the ABM Treaty. There is nothing subtle about it. Unlike our existing policy which permits us to consider whether or not we wish to withdraw from the treaty at the appropriate time, if and when there is a threat and after we have done the research and development to see how much it would cost to put up a national defense and after we have gathered together the information that we need and the impacts that we need in order to make that decision on a reasonable basis, this bill decides now that it is the policy of the United States to pull out of the ABM Treaty. It makes no bones about it. The language of section 233 says: It is the policy of the United States to deploy a multiple-site national missile defense system. That is a clear breach of the ABM Treaty. Article III of the ABM Treaty says: Each party undertakes not to deploy ABM systems at more than one site. The ABM Treaty has permitted us to do a number of things. First, it is permitting arms reduction in offensive weapons. Without the ABM Treaty, the Russians are not going to be reducing their offensive weapons, as they have agreed to in START I and we hope they will ratify in START II.”