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To: neverdem

For rumsfeld fans - a biography, quotes, sayings and policy articulations:

http://www.neoperspectives.com/rumsfeld.htm


4 posted on 02/02/2005 2:52:00 PM PST by traviskicks (http://www.neoperspectives.com/blackconservatism.htm)
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To: traviskicks

A relavent excerpt (notice the similarities between missile defense and bunker buster nukes):

Q: So why have they objected? [Russians to to US pursuing a missile defense] (2001)

Rumsfeld: Oh, I don't know. I don't climb in people's mind. Obviously it's to their advantage to express concern about it. There is the ABM Treaty, which they would have to adjust. I think before it's over, they will accommodate themselves. Of course, let's be very honest about what Russia is doing. Russia is an active proliferator. They are part of the problem. They are selling and assisting countries like Iran and North Korea and India and other countries with these technologies which are threatening other people including the United States and Western Europe and countries in the Middle East. So why they would be actively proliferating and then complaining when the United States wants to defend itself against the, the fruit of those proliferation activities, it seems to me, is misplaced.

It threatens no one. And it should be of concern to no one, including the Russians or the Chinese, unless someone has an intention of doing damage to other people.

Now, the argument against every weapons system almost in history is -- the first argument is that it cost too much. And the next argument is that it won't work. And the next argument is that it will work so well, that it will be destabilizing.

Well, we're hearing all of that now. But that would have been true of anything.

Those arguments, they would have made the same arguments against every weapon system known to man. So I don't particularly find them very valid.

Q: Could I ask you just a follow-up question, Mr. Secretary, on that same subject, your thinking about missile defense? In your mind, is theater missile defense a higher priority than national missile defense?

Rumsfeld: I have gotten to the point where I now am sufficiently into this subject where I've concluded that "national" and "theater" are words that aren't useful. At least for me they're not, in how to think about it, for this reason: What's "national" depends on where you live, and what's "theater" depends on where you live.


6 posted on 02/02/2005 2:54:16 PM PST by traviskicks (http://www.neoperspectives.com/blackconservatism.htm)
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To: traviskicks

Thanks for the link.


12 posted on 02/02/2005 3:14:39 PM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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