BUILDING DISTRUST

US to withdraw unilaterally from the ABM Treaty

The United States gave Russia an unofficial deadline of November 2001 to agree to changes in the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, or face a unilateral American withdrawal from the accord of arms control.

The planned deployment of the new American missile defence system contravenes the 1972 ABM Treaty, which was the first agreement between the United States and Soviet Union that gave way to arms control, detente and the democratisation of Soviet Union. The agreement was seen as the key to close the cold war.

According to the Pentagon, ground-clearing for missile silos and a command centre at Fort Greely, USA, begins this week. Construction of the missile silos begins in April.

President Putin warned in June that a unilateral American withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, which he describes as "the cornerstone of strategic stability," would negate 30 years of arms control.

Superpowers Russia and China have felt threatened for some time by the arms and global policies of the US, and signed the Treaty of Friendship and Military Cooperation  in July 2001.

President Putin has urged President Bush not to abandon three decades of arms control accords. [22-08-2001, News reports]

The 12,000 nuclear warheads, held by the US and Russia under the arms control treaty, have the capacity to destroy the life support system of Planet Earth. The revival of arms race and inherent cold war are bound to increase the number and destructive power of warheads.

The new antimissile defence system of the US is the trigger for a global war. It proposes to destroy hostile warheads outside its territory; wherever they can be intercepted, over regions and people being not a party to the conflict. Their lives, will and loyalties do not count.

The power politics have set the stage for the expansion of the Policy of Scorched Planet Earth. 

It is easier to build weapons of mass destruction from the public's earnings, than providing leadership and responsible foreign policy, when wisdom is on short supply at leadership level.

What about the ordinary people; men, women and children, who must live in the shadow of nuclear extinction? 

Where are the responsibility and accountability of Democratic Leadership?