Gore vs. Bush on Defense

— -- The presidential race is a battle of the hawks when it comes to defense.

Vice President Al Gore has traditionally been a pro-defense Democrat, one of only 10 senators in his party — along with running mate Joseph Lieberman — to vote in favor of the Gulf War in 1991. Gore supports a missile defense system to protect the United States from nuclear attack and promises to boost military spending by $100 billion over the next decade.

The Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, also says he’ll make defense a top priority. He wants to decommision old nuclear weapons, increase research spending on new weapons by $20 billion, and wants an even more extensive missile defense system, one that would protect America’s allies as well.

In all, Bush proposes $47 billion in new military spending, not including the costs of a missile-defense system.

But the missile-defense issue is a central point of disagreement right now between the two candidates. The land-based system would theoretically defend against missiles from terrorists and so-called rouge states like North Korea. But Russia strongly opposes the system and building it would conflict with the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

Gore has said he would seek to amend the ABM treaty to permit a domestic missile-defense system, but Bush has said he will break the treaty if he cannot convince Russia to agree. The latest test of the missile-defense hardware, on July 3, was a failure.

Readiness Disputed

Bush has also sought to make an issue out of the country’s military preparedness, saying the Clinton administration has hurt troop morale and neglected to keep the armed forces in top shape.

“It’s time for new leadership in Washington that will rebuild the morale of the United States military,” Bush said at a speech in September, flanked by former Gens. Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell.

Serving under Bush’s father, former President George Bush, Schwarzkopf and Powell helped orchestrate the U.S. victory in the Gulf War, along with then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, who is now the Texas governor’s running mate. And Bush has strongly hinted that Powell, the former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would have a position in his Cabinet.