[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 120 (Wednesday, September 15, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H8294]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               AMERICA'S VULNERABILITY TO MISSILE ATTACK

  (Mr. CHABOT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, there now appears to be bipartisan support 
for perhaps the most important defense position that the Republican 
party has had for the last 10 years.
  America is vulnerable to a ballistic missile attack. If North Korea 
or Communist China or Iraq were to fire a missile at the United States, 
we would have no ability right now to shoot it down. It is going to 
land and a lot of people are going to die. We do not have a national 
missile defense system now, and the reason is because of the existence 
of a treaty with a country that no longer exists.
  The ABM treaty, signed with the Soviet Union, a country that began 
violating the treaty even before the ink on the paper is dry, is 
standing in the way of a rational policy to protect America from a 
missile attack. Our current policy of relying on the ABM treaty to keep 
America safe from the Osama bin Ladens and the Saddam Husseins of the 
world is dangerous, foolish, and naive. Does anyone really think that 
Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein is going to refrain from developing 
these types of weapons because we have a treaty with the Soviet Union?
  It is time to get to work and at long last have a policy to protect 
this country from missile attack.

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