By Common Ground staff

Nearly 25 years ago US air force Lt. Col. Robert Bowman said that a ballistic missile defence (BMD) was "the missing link to a first strike." Bowman directed the search for such a system during the Jimmy Carter presidency, when he described the US government’s original motivation for developing the BMD.

In light of the Bush administration’s aggressive promotion of the BMD in the context of its "war on terror," we need to know all we can about this so-called missing link to a first strike.

George W. Bush claims that the BMD is a system designed to defend against "rogue states" and terrorists. But the efficacy of a BMD for such purposes is negligible. It would not have prevented the 9/11 attacks. It is also useless against cruise missiles, short-range, submarine-launched missiles and of course suitcase bombs.

So why is the US interested in attaining a first strike capacity without retaliation? First strike involves mounting a surprise attack using nuclear weapons, aimed at defeating an enemy by knocking out its weapons before they can be fired. Under US presidents Nixon, Carter and Reagan, nuclear war strategies were developed aimed at achieving the capacity to mount an unanswerable first strike against the Soviet Union.

Thankfully, such a capacity was never developed. It was impractical, incredibly expensive and would have broken numerous international treaties. Experiments with nuclear-powered lasers intended for satellite deployment failed miserably.

While the USSR at the time renounced the idea of being the first to use nuclear weapons, US nuclear policy makers have always reserved the "right" to the first use of these weapons. During the Cold War a situation of mutually assured destruction (MAD) kept the two superpowers from open nuclear conflict.

Both sides continued to build thousands of nuclear weapons through Ronald Reagan’s era when the Star Wars scenario was touted. Like Reagan, George W. Bush believes that in the event of a nuclear war, he and people with similar fundamentalist beliefs called "rapture" will escape the suffering of a nuclear war and be transported directly to heaven.

Since even three or four missiles surviving a first strike could do catastrophic damage to US cities, proponents of first strike strategy believe that it is essential to create a BMD shield to destroy any incoming missiles. That is what Bowman meant when he argued that a BMD provides the "missing link" to a credible first strike capability.

But a US first strike against a nuclear-armed adversary will be tantamount to killing off the planet. Both the US and Russia have maintained their strategic missiles on a hair-trigger, "launch-on-warning" posture since the end of the Cold War. The total explosive power in these strategic weapons is the equivalent of two billion tons of TNT. A first strike strategy using even a fraction of these weapons would be sufficient to cause "nuclear winter," which would freeze even the tropics. Darkness, crop failure, radiation and disease would destroy human civilization and most living things.

A BMD system makes a first strike credible for some powerful, shortsighted US policy makers and for US military industrial suppliers that lust for the lucrative multi-billion dollar contracts.

Just the use of this threat can be a powerful tool in a strategy whose purpose is to promote US political and economic dominance in the world - including nuclear-armed rival countries - from considering action, which challenges or frustrates US dominance. This is the essential rationale for the US to build a BMD system. Both the Russians and the Chinese understand this and are taking their own counter measures in response to Japan and South Korea signing on to the US BMD program.

Ordinary people consider it mad to take such risks, but it is essential to remember that the use of nuclear weapons was threatened at least 16 times during the Cold War. The Cuban missile crisis was one such incident. In short, the threat to use nuclear weaponry is nothing new for Washington. When it bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US became the only country ever to have used such weapons against an enemy.

The world is increasingly aware of the disaster that is unfolding in Iraq as a result of Bush’s determination to continue waging war against there. He rationalized his obsessive pursuit of war on the grounds that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction - a rationale that has so far proven baseless. Prior to its outbreak, we witnessed unprecedented popular opposition to this war around the world as well as unparalleled resistance to war among the members of the United Nations. Acting in the face of this opposition, the Bush administration was determined to achieve its strategic goals in Iraq: dominance over the country’s oil, privatization of state holdings so that they can be bought up by US corporations and US control over the contracts to rebuild the country.

US policy makers intend to become overwhelmingly dominant militarily so that no country can challenge similar political and economic initiatives in the future. First strike and BMD are an integral part of their twisted strategy. Now that Paul Martin, our un-elected prime minister, is promoting Canada’s involvement in the BMD program, Canadians must tell their politicians that they want no part of this BMD madness and its accompanying weaponization of space. Canadian involvement in a BMD means spending billions of our tax dollars on a system that is meant to subjugate the world, including Canada, for the benefit of US interests. This at a time when our health care and education systems as well as social programs and environmental protection are being starved for funds.

Stopwar.ca, a Vancouver-based coalition which includes more than 150 member organizations, has mobilized opposition to the attack on and occupation of Iraq, the BMD and other manifestations of war since it was formed 16 months ago. It is preparing a major rally for March 20 in Vancouver to mark the first anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. The rally is part of a worldwide protest against imperialism and warmongering. Please take part so we can send our leaders and the world the message that the people of Vancouver reject war and occupation. www.stopwar.ca

Experiments with nuclear-powered lasers intended for satellite deployment failed miserably.