We Must Be Technologically Competitive

The principal responsibility of the U.S. government, and that of any free nation, is to provide for the economic well being of all of its citizens and for the national security. It seems, however, that the state of our economy and trade relations are treated today as secondary to geopolitics and defense issues in the thinking of the executive branch. The expanding U.S. budget and trade deficits are symptomatic of the real ailment in the United States: the decline of our industrial base and a pen

Written byRm Latanision

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This is not to say that national security is unimportant. There is a need, however, for conscientious national debate on our military as well as economic priorities—not just of a Strategic Defense Initiative, but also an equivalent Strategic Competitive Initiative. World stability may be more affected by increasing confrontational relations among trading partners than by the threat of nuclear weapons.

I believe that a strong U.S. military deterrent force is vital to the free world. I also believe that our Trident fleet represents a more than adequate deterrent. Hence, even if SDI were to be shown technically and strategically sound (and I have great reservations that it is), I would not have given it the priority it has been assigned.

The issue is once again priorities. The SDI debate is now taking place at much too late a stage in the policy-making process. The evolution of SDI reflects the way ...

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