The message: spend more on US defence Special report: George W Bush's America Saturday January 13, 2001 In the world according to the Pentagon, apocalypse is always just around the corner. In its latest survey of global menaces, Proliferation: Threat and Response, the US defence department presents a scary picture of multiplying offensive missile systems, accelerating regional nuclear arms races, ever more easily obtained (and murderous) chemical and biological weapons, and stateless fanatics dedicated to worldwide mayhem. Military men never feel totally secure. If they did, they would lose their raison d'etre. Thus while the success of efforts to reduce the Soviet warhead arsenal is acknowledged, this achievement is tempered by gloom about clandestine transfers of hardware and expertise from present-day Russia to rogue "states of concern". And while China is praised, for example, for curbing nuclear cooperation with Iran and tightening its chemical weapons export controls, the Pentagon still warns sombrely that Beijing "remains one of the world's key sources for missile-related technologies" and will continue to use arms sales "to advance its strategic and economic interests". That the US, the world leader in missile technology, never ceases to do precisely this at every opportunity is an irony apparently lost on America's analysts. Unnoticed, too, when it comes to Iraq's destabilising "pursuit of regional hegemony", is the contradiction inherent in America's uncritical attitude to Israel's unmatched nuclear weapons programme. The report notes elsewhere that roguish Syria spends about $1bn annually on defence. But it does not publicise the equivalent US total: about $300bn. Despite these blindspots, the Pentagon report has to be taken very seriously on two counts. One is the light it sheds on the undoubted dangers posed by the spread of weapons of mass destruction. It argues, for example, that North Korea, despite the thaw with the South, continues to deploy large, "offensively-oriented" forces along the common border, has the capacity to make at least one nuclear bomb, and is increasing its missile capabilities at a steady pace. Pyongyang, says the report, has also assembled a large stockpile of chemical precursors and chemical warfare agents. Iran, aided by North Korea and Russia, is said to be moving aggressively towards nuclear weapons and biological warfare capabilities; Sudan and Libya give rise to similar worries. When it comes to India and Pakistan, the report detects a "nuclear and missiles arms race ... with consequences that are difficult to predict and (with) potential for spillover beyond the subcontinent". When the activities of freelance terrorist groups like that led by Osama bin Laden are factored in, all this adds up to what that report calls a daunting worldwide challenge. Which brings us to the second reason why this Pentagon analysis has to be taken very seriously. Just as the cold war gave rise to new generations of offensive missiles, the threat posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction - accurately assessed or not - is now the principal justification for the next big US military expansion: into the multi-layered realm of defensive missiles and expensive new launch platforms like "stealth" destroyers and submarines and space-based vehicles. US National Missile Defence plans, rashly endorsed yesterday by William Hague, get only a small mention here. But they are an integral, and in the Pentagon view, clearly an essential part of the massive, many-pronged counter-proliferation programme now gathering pace in Washington. The military machine is already rolling. It will be very hard to stop. _______________________________________________ Crashlist website: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base
