To the editor:
If you think that Benedict Arnold was a traitor, get this. William Fitzgerald just came out with the news how President Bush with his "new world order" brought out a dramatic disarmament move, which immediately has plunged the United States into a dive that will destroy the defense and deterrent capabilities of America and Western Europe - without consulting Congress.The actual orders the president gave his Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney included:
- Destruction of the entire U.S. arsenal of short-range nuclear weapons deployed primarily in Europe.
- Elimination from U.S. Navy attack submarines and surface ships of all nuclear weapons, including nuclear cruise missiles.
- Removal of all U.S. strategic bombers from alert status and stripping them of their nuclear weapons, which are being placed in storage.
- Terminate plan to deploy MX ICBMs on railroad mobile launchers.
- Stand down from alert all ICBMs scheduled for deactivation under the treaty (START) signed by Bush and Gorbachev at the Moscow summit in July.
- End the mobile Midgetman missile program.
These moves come on the heels of other sweeping cuts in the U.S. armed forces, which include scores of base closings, mothballing of some 100 Navy ships and shutdowns of major Navy yards, plus a sharp reduction of American personnel.
Moreover, Cheney has revealed that 70,000 civilian jobs are being eliminated by the Department of Defense. Meanwhile the Soviets are launching one new sub every six weeks, two planes, six tanks and one missile a day. Why?
Bob Bormann
Provo