Word: mx
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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PRESIDENT REAGAN is about to make a costly mistake. He and his advisers have spent an inordinate amount of time--time that would have been better spent talking about arms limitation--discussing weapons, particularly the MX missile. By all the most recent accounts, the administration is leaning toward a scaled-down version of the mobile missile system first proposed by former president Jimmy Carter and derided by Reagan the candidate. Just as the Carter scheme was ill-conceived from the start, the smaller Reagan plan is equally misguided...
...what to cut is bound to be embarrassing to Reagan. About the only certainty is that the reductions in planned increases will not affect the President's long-delayed decisions to go ahead with production of B-1 bombers and to settle on a basing method for the MX missile. One White House aide spells out the likely consequences of the spending reduction: "The savings will come from stretchouts and slowdowns in [weapons] purchasing, reduced training exercises and scaling down the number of ships the Pentagon would like to build." Those are exactly the sorts of actions for which...
There is no sense in cutting ammunition and training in order to build an MX missile. That would be a real fight...
Spouting heresy in a mild and disarming manner, the wiry general doubts that we need the new MX missile system. He would exploit cruise missiles and hurry research to put future nuclear weapons on submarines. He would put no more American muscle into NATO, believing that if the Soviets decide to attack nations on the fringes of the Iron Curtain there is no way we can win. Our strategy must be to prevent such a move by raising the costs to their interests around the globe. Taylor argues that we need to take a closer look at the Kremlin...
Bush could close the window of vulnerability on the Orioles by stocking his roster with a set of MX ballplayers--guys who are constantly switching positions and spots in the batting order so the opposition can't formulate a cohesive game plan. New York fans would swizzle tax-free beer and hot dogs, except for the underprivileged school children, whose Crackerjack portions would be reduced to compensate for the loss in tax revenue. Best of all, everyone associated with the team would get to trash those tacky polyester uniforms and get into some chinos and oxford cloth...