The peace movement warned this week that Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s proposals for quick deployment of a massive Star Wars system would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty and trigger a disastrous new nuclear arms race.

Bush, the presumed Republican candidate for president, outlined his proposals during a May 23 news conference at the National Press Club flanked by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and other Cold War politicians and retired Pentagon officials. Like Ronald Reagan, Bush gave cover to his Star Wars scheme by trumpeting support for unilateral reductions in U.S. missiles, as if his plan would advance the cause of peace.

"These unneeded weapons are the expensive relics of dead conflicts," Bush said. "America must build effective missile defenses ... at the earliest possible date. Our missile defense must be designed to protect all 50 states and our friends and allies and deployed forces overseas ..."

But John Isaacs, president of the Council for a Livable World (CLW), warned, "Deploying a national missile defense will surely crush hopes for the positive arms control steps."

Luke Warren, a CLW spokesman, elaborated. "Russia and China are not going to be keen on reducing their nuclear arsenals if the U.S. builds a robust anti-ballistic missile system."

China, he pointed out, has only 20 ballistic missiles. But if the U.S. goes forward with deploying a missile defense, China may build more missiles to insure that it can penetrate the ABM shield if attacked by the United States.

India, with years of unstable relations with China, may follow suit, building its own arsenal of missiles. Pakistan, in turn, may build more nuclear-armed missiles to counter a perceived threat from India.

"That’s why Russia and China are so adamant about preserving the ABM treaty," Warren said. Mutual reduction of U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals "ought to be our number one national security priority and it is going to take cooperation and good relations to do that."

Vice President Al Gore, in a speech to the graduating class at West Point, sharply assailed Bush’s plan without mentioning him by name.

"An approach that combines serious unilateral reductions (in missiles) with an attempt to build a massive defensive system will create instability and thus undermine our security," Gore said.

He called the ABM treaty "the cornerstone of strategic stability in our relationship with Russia."

Stability "can never be a one-way street," Gore said. "It either exists for both the United States and Russia or neither. Reductions alone do not guarantee stability."

Gore stressed mutual, negotiated reductions as the key to arms control. Yet Gore, too, said the Clinton administration is pursuing a national missile defense "from a limited attack at the hands of a rogue state."

President Clinton is now on his way to Russia to plead with President Vladimir Putin to agree to "modifications" of the ABM treaty to permit the U.S. to deploy the so-called Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD).

Bush, by contrast, has stated that, if elected, he will deliver an ultimatum to the Russians: accept a U.S. missile defense with or without changes in the ABM treaty.

Since President Reagan first proposed Star Wars in 1981, $120 billion has been spent on the crazed system to weaponize space. The BMD plan would cost an estimated $60 billion but Bush’s plan would cost hundreds of billions.

Clinton has announced that he will decide in June whether to proceed with the BMD based on four criteria: the missile threat, technological feasibility, the effects on arms control, and the costs.

Bruce Gagnon, spokesman for the Gainesville, Fla., based Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space (www.globenet.free-online.co.uk) told the World the BMD, "is just an entering wedge for a full-fledged Star Wars system with 30 or 40 space-stations armed with laser weapons. The U.S. Space Commands aim is to achieve total military domination of earth from space."

He added, "We should be in the streets protesting. This will cost trillions of dollars, money we need for Social Security, Medicare, and public education. This is welfare for the aerospace corporations. "

The Global Network, he said, will stage protests between June 24 and July 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Cape Canaveral, Colorado Springs and at the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Md. to demand that Clinton cancel Star Wars.

James Bridgman, an organizer for the Peace Action Education Fund, told the World that his group is staging "missile stop" demonstrations across the nation to protest plans to build a new generation of nuclear warheads as well as the plan to deploy Star Wars.

The centerpiece of the demonstrations is a giant inflatable mock nuclear missile.

"The United States is moving backwards in arms control by moving forward with Star Wars and new nuclear weapons production while failing to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty," Bridgman said.

In early July, the Pentagon is planning yet another test of a Star Wars anti-missile missile, described by critics as "a bullet designed to sho0t down another bullet."

Not one of the tests has succeeded so far, even though TRW Corporation and the Pentagon have cheated to produce the desired result.

"If we move ahead with Star Wars, other nations will boost their arsenals to preserve their deterrent capability," Bridgman said. "Russia has stated it will withdraw from its obligations under the START II treaty and all other arms control agreements of the U.S. proceeds with BMD."

Bridgman said his group is working in parallel with Peace Action’s "Peace Voter 2000" project. "Our goal is to raise this as a crucial issue in the 2000 elections."