Us Military Experts: Us Nmd Deployment Will Be Big Mistake

Should the US deploy a national missile defense system, it will be a big mistake of the George W. Bush administration, for such a system will not fully protect the United States from the so-called rogue states. According to informed military diplomatic sources, this opinion was voiced by former US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and Special Representative of the President on Arms Control, Non-proliferation and Disarmament in the mid-1990s Thomas Graham when meeting in Moscow with Russia's General Staff officers the other day. American officials noted that today there is no such a missile defense system in the world, which could ensure complete security of this country, so there is no point in modifying or further developing it. In this connection, the American side spoke for preserving the current 1972 ABM Treaty. According to RIA Novosti sources, McNamara is also positive about creating a non-strategic NMD system, which is envisaged in the initiative forwarded by President Vladimir Putin last year. At the same time, the former American Defense Secretary expressed deep doubts that the decision in support of a non-strategic NMD would be adopted by US "hot heads". The sides cited numerous examples from the history of the US-former USSR confrontation, which involved then Defense Secretary McNamara. In this context, the sides exchanged opinions on nuclear non-proliferation. They concluded that the Cold War had ended and pointed to a tendency of switching over to a new type of relations between the two countries--a measured balance of forces and stability, the sources reported. In their words, on the whole the American side was positive about settling the non-proliferation and NMD problems. At the same time, they pointed to the need to develop cooperation between Russia, USA and China in this area.