Sam Gibbons: “we are now living in a world where missile technology is proliferating and the risk of missile attack is increasing each…”

“we are now living in a world where missile technology is proliferating and the risk of missile attack is increasing each and every day. The United States should be working to eliminate restrictions on the development and deployment of a national missile defense system. Unfortunately, the President and his administration have sought to expand the restrictions and block U.S. missile defense programs. Just last year at the United Nations, a delegation led by our Secretary of State signed three agreements that dealt with the 1972 ABM treaty. Those U.N. agreements threaten America's national security and perpetuate America's vulnerability to a missile attack. While this administration along with four independent states of the former Soviet Union agreed to these restrictions, the remaining 11 states in the former Soviet Union would be free to develop tests and deploy ABM systems. Yes, that is right, they can develop an ABM system, but we cannot. I ask you, Mr. Speaker, why would this administration limit the United States in a program of a missile defense system while enabling others to have it? I believe that those are our rights and freedoms. As far as I am concerned they are not negotiable. The citizens of this Nation deserve the best defense we can provide, not a backroom deal that endangers our national security.”