Clinton killed his missile defense system

The creation of the American “shield” is postponed indefinitely

The first practical result of President Clinton's decision announced Friday not to begin preparations for construction of the first component of the nation's missile defense system, the radar on Shemya Island in the western Aleutian chain, will be that the system will not be completed by 2005. Its creators set themselves such a date, since, according to US intelligence forecasts, a number of states that inspire fear in Washington (North Korea, Iran, Iraq) will acquire intercontinental ballistic missiles by this date.

To complete construction by 2005, contracts with contractors had to be signed no later than December of this year. The Pentagon invited contractors to submit technical documentation and estimated cost of work no later than September 7. Now there is no hurry. The decision on the fate of the American missile defense system has been placed on the shoulders of the next president.

The second practical result of Clinton’s decision will be that he will not have to argue about this topic at the upcoming UN Millennium Summit, where many opponents of the American missile defense will gather: from Vladimir Putin to the Chinese and some Europeans, who mainly blaspheme it because it will cover only America, but not them.

Almost no one doubted that Clinton would not order construction to begin, but many expected that he would at least allow the military to begin excavation work. The President did not take this step either. It is now unclear whether the missile defense system will be created at all, since the Washington consensus that favored it took a long and painful time to develop, but could fall apart overnight.

"Clinton killed her," said sadly anti-missile defense supporter Jack Spencer of the conservative Heritage Foundation. Even if he ordered construction to begin, the next president, who takes office on January 20, would have the final say. Like Clinton, Al Gore had never warmed to the idea, which to both of them seemed a relic of the Reagan era, but following Clinton's example, he began to support it verbally, fearing that otherwise the Republicans would start waving the banner of a missile shield.

Most Americans are deeply indifferent to missile defense, especially since, according to polls, many of them are confident that the United States already has it. Therefore, Clinton, who does nothing without checking the latest poll, decided that by killing the missile defense, the Democrats were not risking anything.

Nevertheless, he decided not to tease the geese and framed his statement so that it would have minimal resonance in the United States. The White House did not include Clinton's speech at Georgetown University in the president's officially published agenda to prevent newspapers from guessing in advance what he might say and creating a stir. The university administration was notified of the president's arrival only at six o'clock in the evening the previous day. Advertisements for his speech started going up at 7 p.m. The speech came on the Friday before the three-day weekend (today is Labor Day in America), when Americans hardly watch the latest news and read little of the morning newspapers. And on Tuesday, when they again begin to pay attention to such things, the demise of missile defense is no longer news.

Once in power, Gore will likely find a reason not to deploy anything, although he will apparently continue to fund missile defense research. If George W. Bush, an ardent supporter of missile defense, moves into the White House, it will not necessarily take the form conceived by the current administration: Bush has long criticized the idea of ​​a “limited” system and advocates the creation of a full-fledged missile defense shield that will completely cover not only the United States, but also the territory of its allies . Therefore, Bush can completely scrap the current plan and put forward his own. Republicans are again talking about space-based deployment of some components, and are also actively discussing placing it on ships. This missile defense system will almost certainly be much more complex than Clinton's, and will not be deployed for many years. In other words, in any case, the matter is put off for a very long time.

Vladimir KOZLOVSKY, New York