Presidential Candidates Detail Their National Security Beliefs
WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, known to many voters as a staunch opponent of the Iraq war, enthusiastically supports missile defense development and declines to back a proposal to ban weapons in space.
Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, a Dean rival for the nomination who voted last year to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq, flatly opposes the Bush administration's controversial plans to begin deployment of a missile defense system in Alaska and supports a multilateral ban on space weaponry.
Despite such differences, the major Democratic candidates appear united in opposition to President Bush's initiative to start research on new types of "bunker-busting" and "low-yield" nuclear weapons.
Those are among the positions gleaned from a survey of the Democratic candidates on national security issues, one of the most comprehensive so far in the campaign.
The survey, by the Council for a Livable World, a Washington group opposed to Bush defense policies, is scheduled for public release today.
The survey underscores that while Iraq continues to dominate much of the debate among the candidates, other significant national security issues could factor into the 2004 election.
One activist warned that the Democratic candidates should not ignore such issues as missile defense and control of nuclear weapons.
"The lesson for 2004 that I hope all Democrats have learned is they're going to have to grapple with these issues, whether they want to or not," said John Isaacs, executive director of Council for a Livable World.
The picture of Dean, the former Vermont governor who is now the Democratic front-runner, that emerges from the survey is more nuanced than the dovish image that some have of him because of his stance on Iraq.
Asked whether he supports or opposes a Bush plan to begin deploying a nascent missile defense in 2004, Dean accused the current administration of rushing an untested system into the field. But he added: "Effective missile defense will be an important part of a Dean administration's national and homeland security strategy."
Dean praised President Clinton's moves toward a ground-based missile defense for the United States, "on a timetable that would ensure the deployment would be capable of actually responding to an attack." He pledged to "integrate missile defense into an overall national and homeland security effort which provides real defense for Americans at home and our forces and friends and allies abroad."
