Senator John McCain, who led the fight against further F-22 funding, is now going along with President Obama’s position on the nation’s missile defense program, much to the dismay of some of his supporters from the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA).
Good for Senator McCain, who, perhaps uniquely among Republicans, recognizes that there is a differnce between campaigning and governing.
Here’s Senator McCain’s presidential campaign statement:
John McCain strongly supports the development and deployment of theater and national missile defenses. Effective missile defenses are critical to protect America from rogue regimes like North Korea that possess the capability to target America with intercontinental ballistic missiles, from outlaw states like Iran that threaten American forces and American allies with ballistic missiles, and to hedge against potential threats from possible strategic competitors like Russia and China. Effective missile defenses are also necessary to allow American military forces to operate overseas without being deterred by the threat of missile attack from a regional adversary.
Senator McCain also stated in a 2007 Republican Presidential debate:
“And the first thing I would do is make sure that we have a missile defense system in place in Czechoslovakia and Poland, and I don’t care what his objections are to it.”
Senator McCain, while recently in Tokyo, gave the following remarks regarding the April North Korean missile test:
“I believe there is no more compelling argument for missile defense capability than what just happened with the North Korean launch.”
But Senator McCain has had a change of heart. The United States Senate Armed Services Committee, which authorizes the policies and the expenditures of all U.S. military programs, and is chaired by Senator Carl Levin (MI) and co-chaired by Senator McCain, did not authorize, add amendments, nor bring to a public vote by the whole committee, subcommittee or to the floor of the U.S. Senate any requests to challenge President Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gate’s position to reduce our nation’s only proven long-range missile defense by 32.5 percent as well as an overall reduction of $1.2 billion dollars on missile defense spending.
