New Obama White House Website Offers Only Limited Support For Ballistic Missile Defense Programs
Barack Hussein Obama pledged to continue waging war on terrorists, vowing to stymie their massacre of victims, while at the same time offering peace and friendship to those who renounce the brotherhood of blood and butchery.
After taking the oath of office as the 44th U.S. president, the one-time candidate who ran on abjuring war in Iraq made clear he will not brook more homicidal hatred by groups dedicated to achieving their ends by killing noncombatants.
Obama sounded surprisingly tough as he offered friendship to those who would pursue peace, while promising death to those who continue to embrace terrorism.
“To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect,” Obama said before the U.S. Capitol, addressing a vast throng on the National Mall and millions more across the globe who watched on television as a black man for the first time became president.
“To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict or blame their society’s ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy,” Obama warned. “To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”
The United States and its military won’t cower before killers, Obama pledged. Make no mistake, he said, Americans won’t abandon their freedoms and values. “We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you,” he predicted.
However, he didn’t get into details as to just how much political and fiscal capital he is willing to lay down in that cause.
Missile Defense
For example, the new Obama White House Website, hours after it came up and running for the first time on inauguration day, offered a position paper with only a limited endorsement of ballistic missile defense (BMD) programs, a position similar to one expressed during his two-year election campaign.
“The Obama-Biden Administration will support missile defense, but ensure that it is developed in a way that is pragmatic and cost-effective; and, most importantly, does not divert resources from other national security priorities until we are positive the technology will protect the American public,” the White House Website position paper stated.
That challenges a cornerstone of the eight-year reign of outgoing President Bush, who pulled the United States out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and began developing an ambitious multi-layered missile defense shield to protect the United States against enemy ballistic weapons of various ranges and capabilities.
Bush was prescient, with North Korea emerging in 2006 as a nuclear power. It detonated an atomic bomb underground, as Pyongyang also raised alarms among leaders of nations from Japan to the United States by continuing development of the Taepo Dong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that will be capable of striking targets in the United States.
Of equal concern is Iran, which is producing nuclear materials in defiance of world opinion and United Nations resolutions. Iran, too, is developing steadily longer-range missiles, including a missile shot from a submerged submarine, and has announced plans for a space program that would involve technologies little different from those in ICBMs.
Too, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israel should be wiped from the map, and that it soon shall cease to exist.
To counter any incoming North Korean ICBM, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has developed the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, with interceptors in ground silos in Alaska and California, a program of The Boeing Co. [BA].
And to counter Iranian missiles aimed at Europe, the United States has proposed building the European Missile Defense (EMD) system, a variant of the GMD, also by Boeing.
But a key House leader has questioned the realism of testing for the GMD system, and she has led the House in placing multiple restrictions on funding for the EMD system.
Rep. Ellen Tauscher of California is, like Obama, a Democrat. She chairs the House Armed Services Committee strategic forces subcommittee. (Please see related story in this issue.)
Aside from advocating funding limits or cuts to the EMD program, she also attempted to make gigantic cuts to the Airborne Laser (ABL) program, also led by Boeing. It involves a Boeing heavily-modified 747-400 jumbo jet with a laser system by Northrop Grumman Corp. [NOC] and a beam control/fire control system by Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT].
Rather, she favors missile defense programs that already are through the expensive development phase and into production, such as the sea-based Aegis weapon control system by Lockheed paired with the Standard Missile by Raytheon Co. [RTN].
An early insight to whether Obama shares her views on missile defense programs will be gleaned in coming months when he releases an abbreviated federal budget for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2010.
In another development, an Obama aide favored placing more restrictive, time-consuming budget rules on the MDA.
Obama’s pick for deputy defense secretary suggested last week he’d support making the MDA budgetary, acquisition, testing, and policy processes more open and akin to elaborate procedures imposed on military services. “I think that all our military programs should be managed through those regular” processes, William Lynn said in response to a question from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.). “That would include missile defense. I would think any exceptions should be rare and fully justified.” Lawmakers including Tauscher predict such MDA changes will be made in the new administration.
Separately, the new White House Website urged protection against emerging cyber threats.
China, which has a 5,000-mile-range nuclear-tipped ICBM in nuclear propelled Jin Class submarines, and a 7,000-mile land-based ICBM capable of striking targets in the United States, also is developing a massive cadre of cyber warriors who, upon command, could wreak havoc in U.S. military and civilian computer systems.
The White House position paper says Obama would “cooperate with our allies and the private sector to identify and protect against emerging cyber-threats.”