It's Not 'National' or 'Theater,' It's Just Missile Defense

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 9, 2001 - Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld has stopped differentiating between National
Missile Defense and Theater Missile Defense.

Rumsfeld, speaking with NATO Secretary-General George
Robertson at a March 8 joint press conference in the
Pentagon, said tagging the missile defense effort as either
theater or national is "unuseful."

"What's 'national' depends on where you live, and what's
'theater' depends on where you live," he said.

The Bush administration has called for a missile defense
system to defend all 50 states. The Ballistic Missile
Defense Organization is working on such a system. At the
same time, BMDO and the services are working on systems
that would intercept ballistic missile attacks on deployed
U.S. forces.

"Obviously, if you prevent such an attack against U.S.
forces in an area, you also defend the civilian population
of the area," a DoD official said. "That might be theater
missile defense for American forces, but it's national
missile defense for that country."

Rumsfeld said he is interested in negating the threat of
rogue states launching missiles armed with weapons of mass
destruction at the United States or its allies. "The United
States has friends and allies with whom we're linked very
tightly to," he said.

Bush administration officials have characterized the launch
of such a weapon - or the threat of a launch - as the
ultimate expression of terror, blackmail and aggression.

"I feel that we are approaching (missile defense) in a
rational way by avoiding something that could create
significant differentials in vulnerabilities (between the
United States and its allies)," Rumsfeld said.

"Over time," he said, "it's every bit as important to us to
be able to defend this piece of real estate and our
population in this location as it is to defend our deployed
forces and to have our allies feel equally secure to the
extent that's possible."

Related Site of Interest:

Joint Media Availability - Secretary Rumsfeld and
Secretary General Robertson, March 8, 2001