START Treaty

Barack Obama, The START Treaty, And The Senate Republicans: Politics In The Offing? :(

The Russians and the United States have negotiated a new START Treaty to lessen the danger of nuclear weapons spread, and to verify that each side is keeping the agreement to cut down nuclear stockpiles.

This is a good agreement to cut nuclear weapons stockpiles by thirty percent over seven years, and six former Secretaries of State–three Republicans and three Democrats–have supported ratification of the treaty, which requires a two thirds vote of the Senate!

Leaders of NATO, the national security community and the Joint Chiefs of Staff also support the treaty, but it seems as if the Republicans in the Senate are determined to delay a vote to next year, when there will be six more Republicans in the Senate! 🙁

Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona seems to be the key figure involved in negotiations with the Obama Administration on the treaty, and it seems doubtful that, in the crowded congressional agenda in the lame duck session, that the treaty will get a full hearing and a positive vote, which could endanger US-Russian relations in the long run!

This potential stalling and possible defeat of the treaty next year, if not this year, would come despite support of some GOP senators, including particularly Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, an acknowledged foreign policy expert who is highly respected in the Senate by all of his colleagues!

Should politics get in the way of an important treaty such as this? No, but what else is new? 🙁

Obama And The Nuclear Security Summit

President Obama accomplished a great agreement at a Nuclear Security Summit held in Washington, DC last week.

47 nations agreed to track down all nuclear material over the next four years, and the goal of the meeting, a gathering of more nations than at any time since World War II, was to work together to promote the eventual elimination of all nuclear weapons.

This comes on top of the Russian-US agreement to cut nuclear arsenals by one third, with verification means to insure that both sides keep the agreement.

What Obama did this past week is the fulfillment of what, ironically, President Ronald Reagan promoted as a goal, when he made arms agreements with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

This is something, therefore, that all should embrace, but instead, predictably, conservatives and Republicans are forgetting what Reagan enunciated in his second term in office, and already promise a battle over the strategic arms reduction treaty (START) when it comes to the Senate.

This will happen, despite the fact that Republicans from earlier administrations have spoken up in favor of the treaty and the move toward nuclear security. But rather than unite around the danger of nuclear proliferation and attempt to promote progress on this, the opposition would rather use it as a political issue, so the treaty will incite a new struggle! 🙁