March 7, 2007—Today the House Armed Services Committee received testimony on the Fiscal Year 2008 National Defense Authorization Budget Request from the U.S. Pacific Command and U.S. Forces Korea. Congressman Trent Franks posed the following question regarding missile defense and our war fighters and General Burwell Bell responded as such:

Congressman Franks:

A lot of people are not in favor of missile defense in this country and one of the prime arguments that they make is that somehow the war fighters themselves have no need for the deterrent or the defense capabilities and the benefits of missile defense…can you give us some sense of what you think the benefits are of a robust, layered missile defense, not only for our country but for the war fighters themselves?

General Bell:

I can’t tell you how important I think this issue of missile defense is to the nation...We’ve said for decades that some day rogue states will have the ability to launch a few missiles at us and so we’re looking at that almost today. I wouldn’t say that necessarily the United States is threatened today but certainly U.S. troops are threatened today. I’ve got 800 of these missiles pointed at U.S. troops right now in South Korea. So I would support vigorously a robust approach to theater ballistic missile defense, layered defense, intercontinental ballistic missile defense.  It is a very important part of the total approach to this very serious problem.

 Congressman Franks is serving his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives, is a member of the Committee on Armed Services, Strategic Forces Subcommittee, Committee on the Judiciary, is Ranking Member on the Constitution Subcommittee, and member of the Anti-Terrorism Caucus