January 25, 2004 :: San Francisco Chronicle :: News
“One of the reasons we had 9/11 is because this president spent too much time worried about national missile defense and not enough time worried about the greatest threat to this country,” said Democratic presidential hopeful General Wesley Clark to a crowd of supporters just two days before New Hampshire’s primary.
Asked whether he would continue Bush’s emphasis on missile defense, Clark said he would have to study the issue: “What I’ll do is take an objective look at it and make a decision.” Although Clark seems to say that the Bush administration overemphasizes missile defense, he seemed unwilling to make a statement for or against the actual programs, however: “I don’t know if it will work and I don’t know if it’s worth the money.”
Clark’s ambivalence on both missile defense in general and the actual systems being deployed is reflected his answer to a recent survey by the Council for a Livable World, for which he was asked the following question:
Do you support or oppose the current plan to deploy a ground-based version of a national missile defense in Alaska and California by the fall of 2004? Please feel free to discuss your Administration’s plans for missile defense.
General Clark responded:
“Oppose. I support programs designed to protect the United States against the possibility of ballistic missile attack, but I am concerned that the current program is oriented toward the earliest possible deployment rather than the best possible system.”
Governor Howard Dean, too, seems ambivalent. The Guardian observes that:
Dean either modified his position on a national missile defense program or skipped over some elements of it when asked what he’d do about the defense budget.
He declared simply, “I don’t think we should build out Star Wars because it’s failed too many tests.” Earlier in the campaign, Dean told The Associated Press that “I would continue part of it—the boost phase part, which we are going to need if the North Koreans really do finally develop a nuclear capacity to attack the United States or other countries.”
(Article)» Dec. 11, 2003: Survey: 2 of 6 Democratic candidates favor missile defense (Dean and Lieberman)
» Democratic Senator John Kerry’s first speech was in opposition to MX missiles
» Guardian: Dean’s inconsistency on missile defense
» More stories on: Policy
