[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 16360-16361]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                            MISSILE DEFENSE

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, as we are waiting for some things to 
happen right now, I am very distressed about some of the things we are 
hearing about a concerted effort to stop our missile defense language 
we have proposed for this year that the President has been very 
outspoken on, a recognition that we are in a very threatened position.
  I think it is kind of a shock to many American people when they find 
out, and I say find out, not hear but find out, that we are in the most 
threatened position we have been in as a nation perhaps in the history 
of this country.
  I can remember saying this back in 1995, and finally we had the 
Director of Central Intelligence about 2 years ago say that, in fact, 
we are in the most threatened position we have been in as a nation.
  There is a current movie that people have gone to. I happened to see 
it on an airplane the other day. It is called ``Thirteen Days.'' It is 
a story about the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, and some of us are old 
enough to remember the hysteria that hit the streets in the United 
States. People were going to the supermarkets and stocking up on 
things. They were digging storm shelters and telling their friends: Do 
not come to our house because we are digging a storm shelter. It was 
panic, and it was panic because they woke up one morning and found out 
there were Soviet missiles on the island of Cuba aimed at American 
cities, and that we had no defense against those incoming missiles.
  Those were medium-range missiles that could have hit any American 
city in the continental America other than Seattle. So it is 
understandable people were panicked about it.
  Yet if you saw this movie, one of the alternatives was to take 20 
minutes and go down and wipe out the island of Cuba. That was one 
alternative, and that is why we say and I say that the threat facing 
America is greater today than it was then, because of those missiles 
that are currently targeting American cities. And this is not something 
that is up for debate, it is not something that anyone is going to 
challenge, because it was classified material until one of the 
newspapers was able to get some information here about 2 years ago, 
and, yes, at that time they said at least 18 American cities were 
targeted by missiles from China.
  It goes without saying and everybody knows that virtually every 
country has weapons of mass destruction, either biological, chemical, 
or nuclear. The thing they do not have, at least up until recently, is 
a missile to deliver those weapons. Now it is a different story. We 
know for a fact that North Korea, Russia, and China have missiles that 
will reach the United States of America.
  Let me be real specific. If the Chinese were to deploy a missile from 
somewhere around Beijing, it would take 35 minutes to get here, and 
during that 35 minutes we have absolutely nothing in our arsenal to 
knock down that missile, zero. We are naked. It is hard to explain the 
devastation that can take place by an incoming nuclear missile.
  I come from the State of Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, we had the most 
devastating domestic terrorist attack in the history of this country. 
That was when the Murrah Federal Office Building explosion occurred. 
That was devastating, and 168 people lost their lives. I was there just 
a few minutes after it happened, and I can remember the parts of the 
bodies that were stuck to the walls of the building that was still 
smoking. It was still insecure when all of these firemen who had 
volunteered came all the way from as far away as Maryland to help to 
try to go in and secure the building, to try to find the bodies. Many 
bodies were never found.
  That was a terrible explosion, and yet the smallest nuclear warhead 
known to man is 1,000 times that explosive power. So think about what 
that could do relative to the disaster that took place in Oklahoma a 
few years ago.
  Now we are faced with this threat. I would like to think that is the 
only problem, but there are other problems. We are at one-half the 
force strength of 1991. How many people know that? Is that debatable? I 
am talking one-half Army divisions, one-half tactical air wings, one-
half of the ships--down from 600 to 300 ships. It is usually reassuring 
to people, thinking that although we are at one-half strength, we have 
the best military personnel, we have the best of equipment, the most 
modern equipment. That is not true anymore.
  We had a hearing the other day before all the Chiefs. There was a 
friend of mine in the audience named Charles Sublett, a hero in 
Vietnam, flying F-4s and F-100s while the Navy was flying A-6s and A-
4s. I identified him as a hero. He stood up. I said: Let me ask you 
this question--and a lot of people differ as to the war in Vietnam; 
there is a difference of opinion Americans have--was it true every 
piece of equipment you had was better than that which any potential 
adversary had? He said: Absolutely.
  Today that is not true. The best air-to-air missile we have is the F-
14. It is not as good as the SU-27 now manufactured on the open market 
and bought by the Russians and Chinese, and the best we have for air-
to-ground capability is the F-16 and still their SU-30 is better.
  I asked the same question of the generals testifying. They said that 
is true

[[Page 16361]]

in terms of the range and the maneuverability. Our pilots are better, 
but the equipment is not as good. The same is true with artillery 
capability. The Paladin is outgunned in terms of range and fire by 
almost everything our potential adversaries have. It is not just that 
we do not have a missile defense in this country when the threat is 
every bit as real as 1962 when everybody panicked. We have a real job 
in trying to do an adequate job defending this country with the defense 
authorization bill that will be forthcoming.
  Tonight we have our first meeting. We had subcommittee meetings 
today, and tonight we have our first meeting. I hope this does not end 
up being a partisan bill. People recognize defending America has to be 
the No. 1 priority.

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