Bush Emphasizes Defense, Weaponry
By ROBERT BURNS
05:36 PM ET 09/23/99
WASHINGTON (AP) - Promising a ``new architecture of American defense,''
Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush said that he would spend $20 billion more
on futuristic weapons research, build a national defense against ballistic missiles as
quickly as possible and cut back on overseas peacekeeping by American troops.
Speaking at The Citadel military academy in Charleston, S.C., Bush accused the
Clinton administration of breaking faith with service men and women by deploying them too
frequently and paying them too little. He said the administration has failed to use
America's technological prowess to create a more lethal and mobile military.
``The last seven years have been wasted in inertia and idle talk,'' said Bush,
who served in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.
Bush, who holds a large lead in the polls, said the Clinton administration had
weakened the nation's defenses by embarking on ``vague, endless and aimless'' missions
abroad. As president, Bush said, he would order a top-to-bottom review of the military -
its structure, strategy and spending priorities - and give his secretary of defense a
mandate: ``Challenge the status quo and envision a new architecture of American defense
for decades to come.''
The Texas governor spoke to an overflow audience of about 600, including about
400 cadets in gray uniforms. Several cadets pumped their fists in the air as he was
introduced.
``With that kind of reception, you've got amnesty,'' Bush told the cadets. ``I
don't care what the general says.'' Bush's address - part of a series of speeches designed
to spell out his presidential agenda - is an answer to critics who say Bush is not ready
to be president and that his views on public policy are undeveloped.
A spokesman for Vice President Al Gore, who is seeking the Democratic
nomination, made light of Bush's foreign policy credentials and his history of confusing
names of countries. ``The governor's foreign policy expertise begins with Slovenia and
ends with Slovakia, and even these have proven to be too much of a challenge,'' Chris
Lehane said.
Many of Bush's prescriptions for a healthier military are similar to those
pursued by President Clinton, including pay raises for troops and innovations to make U.S.
forces more adaptable and easier to deploy on short notice. Their differences are mainly a
matter of degree. Bush, for example, would spend $5 billion more on pay raises over the
coming five years, and he would commit more quickly to deploying a national defense
against missile attack. ``At the earliest possible date'' his administration would deploy
anti-missile systems to protect not only U.S. troops abroad and allies but also to shield
the U.S. homeland from ``attack and blackmail.'' He did not spell out how extensive the
national system would be, but aides said it would be more complete than Clinton envisions.
The Clinton administration plans to decide as early as June 2000 whether to
deploy a limited national defense system.
Bush said he would have the United States withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty with Russia if Moscow refused to accept amendments allowing the testing and
deployment of a national missile defense. The Clinton administration is pressing Moscow to
accept such changes and has said withdrawal from the treaty remains an option.
A key distinction emphasized by Condoleeza Rice, the candidate's top foreign
policy adviser, is Bush's intent to move the military out of its Cold War-era structure by
emphasizing innovation and next-generation technologies.
Bush said, for example, that he would earmark at least 20 percent of the
Pentagon's weapons procurement budget for programs that propel America ``generations
ahead'' in military technology. He mentioned such possibilities as a ``stealthy ship''
packed with long-range missiles and unmanned aircraft capable of long-range missile
strikes.
Bush said he would commit an extra $20 billion to defense research and
development between 2001 and 2006. That would be in addition to the approximately $173
billion the Clinton administration has proposed over a similar period.
Responding to Bush's speech, David Leavy, chief spokesman for the White House's
National Security Council, said it was wrong to say the administration had overused the
military.
``The president has made one of his key national security priorities making sure
that our armed forces are the best trained, best led and best equipped fighting force in
the world,'' Leavy said, adding that the administration has proposed the first sustained
increase in overall defense spending since the late 1980s.
Bush said one of his first priorities would be to ``renew the bond of trust''
between the president and the military. Clinton, he said, has undermined morale by using
today's smaller military too freely for open-ended missions like the peacekeeping effort
in Bosnia that began in 1995 and continues with no end in sight. ``Something has to give,
and it's giving,'' he said.
Bush said his administration would review U.S. troop commitments abroad - except
those of long standing like South Korea and Japan - with an eye toward an ``orderly and
timely withdrawal'' from Bosnia and Kosovo.
``We will not be permanent peacekeepers, dividing warring parties,'' he said.
``That is not our strength or our calling.''
EDITOR'S NOTE - Associated Press reporter Bruce Smith in Charleston, S.C.,
contributed to this report.
