Why Do the Conservatives Hate the ABM Treaty?
So why do the conservatives hate this Treaty that was negotiated by one of their own (Richard Nixon)? The answer is that it stands in the way of a “Star Wars” missile defense system which is their only public excuse for putting weapons in space. According to “Battlefield Space” (an article by Jack Hitt in The New York Times Magazine August 5, 2001, starting on page 30), the use of space for weaponry directed back at earth or guided from space is pretty much at hand. “War planners have conceived scores of new and exciting weapons. Talking about them is not a conversation the military wants to have in public, given the gnarly debate over the missile shield, but it is one they have been having in private for some time.” According to a recent Pentagon study, a laser cannon in space could “successfully attack ground or airborne targets by melting or cracking cockpit canopies, burning through control cables, exploding fuel tanks, melting or burning sensor assemblies and antenna arrays, explo
