- PETERSBURG, N.D. (Reuters)
- The U.S. military on Friday blew up a Minuteman III missile silo, marking
the last such silo destruction under a Cold War-era arms reduction treaty
between the United States and the former Soviet Union.
-
- A dark cloud of dust and smoke arose from under ground
after the military set off 800 pounds of explosives, forever closing the
door on a silo that once housed a guided intercontinental missile equipped
with nuclear warheads, ready to be launched at a moment's notice.
-
- Military officials attending the event expressed mixed
emotions, including sadness for the end of an era in which the missile
silos were a key component of U.S. defense, but also approval of the move
to disarmament.
-
- "For 36 years we've been on alert 24-7 to protect
us from any foreign country," said missile facility technician Sgt.
Steve Marback who witnessed the explosion. "I feel a little heart
tug, but I'm not complaining. It's for the good of us all."
-
- The demolition of the silo, which was emptied years ago
of its Minuteman III missile, is the last in a series required under the
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty known as START I.
-
- Negotiated in the 1980s between former U.S. President
Ronald Reagan and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, each side committed
to reduce nuclear warheads in their intercontinental ballistic missile
forces to no more than 6,000 each. The deal was signed in 1991 by Gorbachev
and former U.S. President George Bush and took effect in December 1994.
-
- Under the successor START II treaty between Moscow and
Washington, each side would further cut their warheads to about 3,500 each.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is pressing for further joint cuts to
about 1,500 warheads each.
-
- But the disputes with Russia over arms control have not
ended with the Cold War. President Bush, the son of Bush senior, has authorized
groundbreaking for new missile silos in Alaska as part of his controversial
proposal to build a U.S. missile defense system.
-
- Bush on Thursday made his most emphatic statement yet
that the United States would withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile
treaty to clear the way for the missile defense system.
-
- Russian officials have warned that such moves could be
destabilizing, possibly leading Russia to build a new generation of missiles
with multiple warheads.
-
- The U.S. military still maintains several hundred Minuteman
III missiles in silos located at Air Force bases in Wyoming, Montana and
North Dakota, but the 150 silos that were part of the Grand Forks Air Force
Base command have all now been dismantled, with the exception of one. The
Air Force hopes to turn that one into a memorial.
-
- The missile silo destroyed on Friday was one of a group
of 15 such silos controlled by a single launch facility where around- the-clock
crews once stood ready to push the buttons needed to fire the missiles
if ordered.
-
- Situated at least a mile from the nearest farm house,
the silo sat silent and almost unseen for decades in the middle of a wheat
field.
-
- "They used to drive around it with their tractors,"
said Air Force Staff Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol, a spokesman from the Grand
Forks Air Force base.
-
- On Friday, lazy cows watched from a nearby pasture and
curious residents lined up along the gravel county road leading to the
silo site. A nearby school brought in a busload of school children to witness
the event.
-
- Area resident and self-declared peace activist Larry
Lange applauded the destruction of the silo.
-
- "Nuclear weapons are not needed. The only way to
peace is nonviolent," Lange said. "I think the time has come
to put away all the nuclear stuff."
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