Dear Members and Friends,

The former Republican nominee for President, current U.S. Senator from Arizona, and minority Ranking Member on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee John McCain has chosen in his current position not to challenge President Obama and this administration on their reduction of funding and deployment of missile defense, as he clearly stated and advocated for missile defense while debating President Obama in front of the American public. (Watch the video here: video clip #1, video clip #2)

Senator McCain’s presidential campaign statement is as follows:

“John McCain strongly supports the development and deployment of theater and national missile defenses. Effective missile defenses are critical to protect America from rogue regimes like North Korea that possess the capability to target America with intercontinental ballistic missiles, from outlaw states like Iran that threaten American forces and American allies with ballistic missiles, and to hedge against potential threats from possible strategic competitors like Russia and China. Effective missile defenses are also necessary to allow American military forces to operate overseas without being deterred by the threat of missile attack from a regional adversary.”

Senator McCain also stated in a 2007 Republican Presidential debate:

“And the first thing I would do is make sure that we have a missile defense system in place in Czechoslovakia and Poland, and I don’t care what his objections are to it.”

Senator McCain, while recently in Tokyo, gave the following remarks regarding the April North Korean missile test:

“I believe there is no more compelling argument for missile defense capability than what just happened with the North Korean launch.”

The United States Senate Armed Services Committee, which authorizes the policies and the expenditures of all U.S. military programs, and is chaired by Senator Carl Levin (MI) and co-chaired by Senator McCain, did not authorize, add amendments, nor bring to a public vote by the whole committee, subcommittee or to the floor of the U.S. Senate any requests to challenge President Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gate’s position to reduce our nation’s only proven long-range missile defense that protects our country from North Korea and from Iran by 32.5 percent as well as an overall reduction of $1.2 billion dollars on missile defense spending.

In the current world situation where our people and nation have been directly threatened by long-range ballistic missiles from North Korea who demonstrated their second nuclear weapon detonation this year. Furthermore, Iran’s continued advancement in ballistic missiles and determination to develop a nuclear weapon this year is unabated. It is a failure of our American democracy that reflects the American public through the U.S. Senate whose job it is to provide checks and balances on the President of the United States, that not one public vote to support or to challenge the missile defense budget cuts was made by this committee and Senator McCain who campaigned in support of missile defense.

There is something inherently wrong and troubling to not have an issue of this magnitude be challenged and brought up in the public light and held accountable by the American public in the United States Senate.

Growing up on a ranch in Rimrock, Arizona and going to a school in Cottonwood, Arizona, taking the daily school bus through Cornville, the home of Senator McCain, with the sons and daughters of ranchers, farmers, American Indians and small town folks from the Verde Valley, we were all raised, taught and trusted that a man is only as good as his word.