CND
welcomes Obama's scrapping of
planned Missile Defence system
The
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
warmly welcomed the reported
scrapping of US plans to build
Missile Defence bases in the
Czech Republic and Poland, as
detailed by the Wall Street
Journal. The highly destabilising
plans had been opposed by
majorities in both those
countries, as well as by Russia
which was considering its own
arms build-up in response,
creating a 'new Cold War' in
Europe. This highly significant
change opens the way for major
advances in related areas, such
as the cuts to nuclear warhead
numbers that President Obama
wishes to see.
The UK government supported the
Bush-era plans but the rethink by
the Obama administration must
leave open to doubt whether two
military bases in North Yorkshire
will still form part of the
remaining system.
Kate Hudson, Chair of the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,
said"We strongly welcome
this rethink. The Missile Defence
plans were an unnecessary and
destabilising provocation to
Russia which threatened to plunge
Europe back in to a new Cold War.
Whereas both the US and Russia
were previously threatening to
deploy more missiles on the
continent, we hope this decision
will open the way to negotiating
major cutbacks.
"With Obama and Medvedev due
to meet at the UN next week we
urge both sides to set bold
targets for reducing their
arsenals, which still have the
power to destroy all life on
earth several times over. Missile
Defence has been the key
stumbling block in the path of
negotiations so we really hope
the detail of the revised US plan
raises no further problems -
specifically, that plans to
deploy US short-range Patriot
anti-missile batteries to Poland
are also scrapped.
"Our government should build
on President Obama's example of
cancelling unnecessary and costly
weapons programmes, ending
participation in Missile
Defence and scrapping the
£76bn Trident replacement. Both
Missile Defence and renewed
nuclear weapons systems actually
contribute to bringing about the
situations they are
supposed to prevent. By
providing leadership in nuclear
disarmament by scrapping Trident,
Britain could spur on drives
towards the global abolition of
nukes - replacing it only lets
other countries claim that
likewise, they need nuclear
weapons for their own
security."
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