New START Has the "Unanimous Support of America's Military Leadership"

Today's top nuclear policy stories, with excerpts in bullet form.

Stories we're following today, Thursday, May 13, 2010:

The Case for the New START Treaty - Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in the Wall Street Journal [link]

• The U.S. is far better off with this treaty than without it. It strengthens the security of the U.S. and our allies and promotes strategic stability between the world's two major nuclear powers.
• The treaty preserves the U.S. nuclear arsenal as a vital pillar of our nation's and our allies' security posture. Under this treaty, the U.S. will maintain our powerful nuclear triad—ICBMs, submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and bombers—and we will retain the ability to change our force mix as we see fit.
• It is buttressed by credible modernization plans and long-term funding for the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile and the infrastructure that supports it. This administration is proposing to spend $80 billion over the next decade to rebuild and sustain America's aging nuclear infrastructure.
• The treaty will not constrain the U.S. from developing and deploying defenses against ballistic missiles, as we have made clear to the Russian government.
• The New START Treaty has the unanimous support of America's military leadership—to include the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all of the service chiefs, and the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, the organization responsible for our strategic nuclear deterrent.
• For nearly 40 years, treaties to limit or reduce nuclear weapons have been approved by the U.S. Senate by strong bipartisan majorities. This treaty deserves a similar reception and result—on account of the dangerous weapons it reduces, the critical defense capabilities it preserves, the strategic stability it maintains, and, above all, the security it provides to the American people.

Senate Sets Hearings on New Treaty With Russia - The Associated Press [link]

• The Senate will begin hearings next week on a new treaty with Russia that would reduce the two countries' arsenals of long-range nuclear weapons by about a third.
• Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, are scheduled to testify on Tuesday. Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III is due before the committee on Wednesday.
• Stephen Rademaker, assistant secretary of state for arms control in President George W. Bush's administration, said last week it was likely the treaty would be approved. But he said, he hoped senators would "ask questions" first about Russian development of new weapons.
• "This treaty should be a no-brainer; it establishes new, lower limits on Russia's strategic arsenal and re-establishes a verification system that is essential to predictability and stability," said Daryl Kimball, head of the Arms Control Association.
• The White House said it planned to submit the treaty to the Senate for ratification on Thursday.

Nuclear Weapons "Modernization" Myths and Realities - Tom Collina and Daryl Kimball for the Arms Control Association [link]

• Over the past decade the U.S. Life Extension Program has successfully refurbished major warhead types, and with sufficient resources can continue to do so indefinitely.
• The United States is already engaged in the process of upgrading all of its strategic nuclear delivery systems, the warheads they carry, and the production complex for the next 20-30 years or more.
• Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, a few Senators cling to the outdated notion that the United States is not "modernizing" its nuclear weapons production infrastructure and that new-design warheads should be pursued to maintain the reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile.
• Lingering concerns that the United States does not have a plan to maintain and modernize its nuclear forces are based on myth, not reality.
• It would be tragic if Senators allowed such myths to prevent them from supporting New START and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which would reduce the very real nuclear weapons threats posed by other nations.

Vatican Questions Nuclear Deterrence - The Washington Post [link]

• Not only is the use of nuclear weapons immoral, the conditions that allowed the Catholic Church to tolerate nuclear deterrence no longer apply, the Vatican representative to the United Nations said in little noticed speeches in Washington and New York City.
• The Catholic Church has been speaking out on nuclear issues over the past couple of months, but its message has been drowned out by media coverage of the sexual abuse crisis.
• On April 7, the Vatican newspaper praised the U.S.-Russian disarmament treaty (START II) as a "significant and courageous step toward international security."
• At his weekly general audience on May 5, Pope Benedict XVI called on world leaders to work to stop the spread of nuclear weapons with the goal of complete nuclear disarmament.
• We should not ignore the Vatican and the U.S. bishops when they speak out on important issues of justice and peace.

Samore: Arms Control Agenda Linked to Middle East Peace - The Cable in Foreign Policy [link]

• Add the Obama administration's WMD czar Gary Samore to the growing list of top officials who believe that Middle East peace is a necessary precursor to solving wider regional problems, including the drive to curb the spread of nuclear weapons.
• "We recognize and I frankly think everybody recognizes that in the absence of a comprehensive and endurable peace settlement, achieving the zone... is just not likely to be the outcome any time soon," Samore said.
• It's longstanding U.S. policy that Israel should eventually join the NPT, but it's also longstanding U.S. policy not to push Israel to change its stance of neither confirming nor denying its estimated stockpile of 100-plus nuclear weapons.
• Samore said he does not personally support Israel changing its policy of ambiguity and that no such discussions were taking place that he was aware of.