Making the World Safer from WMD Proliferation

Making the World Safer from WMD Proliferation

As a Member of Congress, and the House Armed Services Committee, there is no responsibility I take more seriously than protecting the Homeland, our freedoms and democracy.

We are winning the war on terror. It has happened incrementally, step by step, in place after place. Consider the progress against the worldwide proliferation of weapons of mass destruction today compared to before 9/11.

Libya

Recently, Libyan dictator/leader, Moammar Gadhafi, invited teams from the United States, Britain and the United Nations to come to Libya and help his government reveal and destroy all of the country's weapons of mass destruction. What makes this particularly remarkable is that while the U.S. knew Libya was supporting terrorists, we did not realize how far they had come in developing weapons of mass destruction.

Current U.S. foreign policy caused Col. Gadhafi to reassess the value of WMDs to his regime. Upon returning from Libya, Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) reported that, "Gadhafi decided that Libyan security can be better assured by a positive relationship with the United States and the West than through a risky and expensive policy of developing weapons of mass destruction."

North Korea

In 1994, North Korea and the United States signed an agreement in which North Korea pledges to freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for international food and energy aid. In 1999, the U.S. eased economic sanctions. Therefore, it was a surprise when in 2002 a visiting U.S. delegation revealed that North Korea had concealed a second covert nuclear weapons program in violation of the 1994 agreement.

North Korea has finally agreed to join the United States, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China for a round of talks in Beijing beginning February 25. The United States insists on the verifiable and irreversible dismantling of the nuclear program. With our allies we must convince North Korean leader Kim Jong that he too is better off without WMD.
However, at least since 2002 we've known the truth about his arms programs.

Iraq

There is no question of Saddam Hussein's goal to obtain weapons of mass destruction. With Saddam behind bars, and awaiting trial, he is no longer a threat to his people and world peace.

Pakistan

A couple weeks ago Pakistan's former chief nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, a Pakistani national hero, known as the father of the Pakistani bomb, went on national television and confessed to leading an extensive international network for the proliferation of nuclear materials and weapons. Those secrets and weapons were illegally disclosed to countries including Iran, Libya and North Korea.

The country's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who has been the target of many assassination attempts by Islamic extremists, since siding with the United States in the "War on Terror," has renewed his commitment to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The events in Pakistan, however, show that the war on terror and our commitment to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction require our utmost efforts.

The U.S. has made dramatic progress in disrupting and diminishing the weapons of mass destruction proliferation network. Because of the principled leadership of George W. Bush, I believe the world is safer today.