Give Us Liberty

Congress Should Stop START

December 21st, 2010 Frank Gaffney, The WashingtonTimes

The 111th Congress has been discredited by its arrogant disregard for the public and has been repudiated at the polls. President Obama and his allies in the Senate are, nonetheless, trying to use the lame-duck session to get a “zombie Senate” to foist on the American people right before Christmas a dangerous New START nuclear arms treaty with Russia. There are compelling reasons why the handful of Republican senators who will decide whether this treaty is approved in its present form – under artificially constrained circumstances that allow minimal opportunity for informed debate – should just say no. Some of the most compelling include:
The treaty would leave the Russians with thousands more nuclear weapons than the United States when their 10-to-1 advantage in “tactical” arms is factored in. Moreover, the Kremlin’s tactical weapons are mostly modern. Ours are, on average, more than 30 years old; some actually rely on vacuum tubes. Theirs are deployed forward near our allies and, in some cases, are being moved still closer in order to intimidate America’s friends. Meanwhile, our tactical bombs, artillery shells, etc., are no longer deployed aboard Navy ships; many of them are kept in the United States and therefore are of limited, if any, deterrent value.
What is more, Russian doctrine holds that such weapons are usable and probably decisive in war-fighting. Moscow’s large arsenal of tactical nukes will be even more of a threat if sharp cuts are made in the “nuclear umbrella” historically provided to our friends by our strategic deterrent. Does anyone think this will make the world safer and strengthen America security?
New START shrinks the U.S. deterrent at a time when the threat from dangerous countries is growing, unconstrained by the treaty. China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Burma and Venezuela are among those increasingly hostile nations that have obtained nuclear weapons or are working to get them. This list may shortly include others who have, until now, been American allies but may feel, under the circumstances, obliged “go nuclear” as well. If we are seen as less able – or willing – to protect them with our deterrent, the world is likely to have a lot more nuclear weapons, not fewer of them (let alone be rid of them, as Mr. Obama hopes) and surely to be a lot more dangerous for the United States.
New START will allow the Russians to have a say – and what amounts to a veto – over America’s defenses against missile attack. The Russians have said they will withdraw from the treaty if we improve the quantity or quality of our very limited anti-missile capabilities. That threat will be more than enough to dissuade an Obama administration that already has cut, slowed and refused to deploy U.S. anti-missile programs.
Such an arrangement is especially crazy because other dangerous countries that are not parties to New START are building up their ability to attack us and our allies with ballistic missiles. For example, Iran soon will have a base for such missiles in Venezuela – a new Cuban missile crisis in the making. Why should Moscow be able to decide whether we can protect the American people from those missiles?
Russian compliance with New START cannot be properly verified. This is a particular problem because the Kremlin has cheated on every arms-control treaty it has ever signed….
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