A pro-missile-defense group has swung into action to defend imperiled missile defense programs.
The Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA) reacted to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates proposing to cut, freeze or effectively kill various defense programs, including some major missile defense efforts. (Please see Space & Missile Defense Report, Monday, April 6, 2009.)
Rather than the usual tactic of focusing lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C., MDAA is going across the country to build grass-roots political support for missile defense.
Over several days, MDAA has visited five states: Nevada, Hawaii, Arkansas, Mississippi, and California.
MDAA engaged personally with three senators and two congressmen in their respective home states, and with their constituents, according to MDAA. Those lawmakers included Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), and Robert Wicker (R-Miss.), plus Reps. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) and Mike Ross (D-Ark.).
“We believe more than ever, that the education of our public on missile defense is of the utmost importance,” said MDAA President Riki Ellison. “The public awareness of the issue has increased dramatically due to the recent events as missile defense has and continues to be at the forefront of [national] and major world news.”
That referred to North Korea clandestinely launching a long-range missile that arced over Japan, and then saying it will restart a nuclear reactor where it makes plutonium that is fashioned into atomic bombs. (Please see story in this issue.)
“The American public will have a strong voice and that voice will be listened to by the [Obama administration] and in the … Congress on this specific issue,” Ellison predicted. Any move by Congress and the administration “to deny the continued full support of a robust multi-layered missile defense system that protects our nation and our armed forces from ballistic missiles and future nuclear weapons cannot be justified to the American public whose lives and nation are at stake,” Ellison stated.