View from the Hill

Congress Should Fully Fund Missile Defense Shield

by Congressman Terry Everett (R-AL)

The new century has ushered in a new threat to America and her allies—the emergence of rogue nations bent on exploiting and proliferating weapons of mass destruction as a tool of coercion and to further their radical agendas. Iran is but the latest, defying international pressure to suspend their nuclear program, while pursuing an increasingly hostile position in the Middle East.

On August 20, the U.S. and Poland signed an agreement that would allow the placement of interceptor rockets in that Eastern European nation as part of a missile defense system to shield the U.S. and Europe from ballistic missile strikes from rogue nations such as Iran. The news of this accord came on the heels of the Russian invasion of the Republic of Georgia. The two events were unrelated, yet the Russian government has done its best to paint the Polish missile defense pact as a hostile move against its own security. This is untrue.

The world today is certainly not as focused on the chance of a nuclear ballistic missile strike as it was during the height of the Cold War. To be sure, the reduction in the nuclear arsenals of the U.S. and the former Soviet Union that began decades ago was a major step forward in reducing the chance of such an unthinkable action. The threat today, while reduced in its total potential impact, has merely changed direction. Rather than the possibility of a Russian missile strike on the West, today we are increasingly concerned about hostile nations, such as Iran and North Korea, which are both developing and proliferating nuclear weapons and ballistic missile delivery capabilities and making threats towards the U.S. and our allies.

Since the 1980s, the U.S. has been steadily engineering and testing the sophisticated technology to counter a ballistic missile attack against our land. It has been a long and difficult climb, but today we have stood up a basic missile defense system that spans across North America to the Pacific Ocean and soon a third site in Europe. In addition, we and our allies have theater missile defense systems deployed around the world to protect U.S. forces abroad and our allies. The U.S. has key radar and missile interceptor sites in California and Alaska. Recently, the Czech Republic also agreed to house a radar site as part of this new defense system.

As ranking member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, I’m proud of my subcommittee’s efforts to push the military and our government contractors for the best missile technology as soon as possible. Full funding for the development of the missile defense network is critical, and I have discussed these issues personally with leaders from Poland and the Czech Republic, and also urged the President and Prime Minister of Poland to approve the recent missile defense agreement.

As I near the end of my 16 years in the U.S. Congress, I reflect back on those achievements that I believe have made significant impacts on our national security. Missile defense is an area where I have seen great progress, not only by the United States, but also by our key allies such as NATO, Israel and Japan. Our allies see the logic and wisdom in developing missile defense as we collectively face threats from global terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Indeed, in April, our NATO allies unanimously agreed to accept a U.S.-led missile defense system and in July, opinion polls reflected that 80 percent of the American public also supports such a system in place to protect the homeland.

While the time is right to implement a multi-national missile defense system with our allies, the 2009 National Defense Authorization Act which passed the U.S. House in May slashed funding for European Missile Defense by 50 percent. Both defense appropriations committees also cut the funding. This short-sighted action sent mixed signals to our European partners about the seriousness of our commitment. And it, no doubt, gave encouragement to our adversaries.

As the Congress works to finalize its defense authorization and appropriations bills, I will be working hard to encourage my colleagues to restore funding and support moving forward so we can meet the scheduled deployment capability in 2013 and remain ahead of the threat, not catching-up.

This is a crucial time for the U.S. to continue its leadership and follow through on its international commitments. ♦

Representative Terry Everett represents Alabama’s second district.