Time for Clarity in the Senate; Time to Ratify New START

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

Stories we're following today, Thursday, November 18, 2010:

Arms Control: Clarity in the Senate - John Podesta for Politico [link]

• The New START treaty has genuine bipartisan support and ratification is crucial to restore the verification system, which lapsed when the original agreement expired in 2009. Senate Republicans, however, prefer yet more delays, because they fear losing their leverage once it’s time to vote yes or no.
• Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) must recognize that most Republicans have little interest in killing the treaty. He should schedule a vote in this lame-duck session. The United States -- and the world -- will then know whether Republicans choose partisanship or the security of the United States.
• The treaty has received such broad support because it is a modest continuation of Washington’s post-Cold War commitment to reduce our nuclear arsenal and is vital to ensuring continued nuclear stability. The pact updates the verification and monitoring framework put forth by the original START treaty.
• The U.S.-Russia “reset” has paved the way for greater Russian cooperation on pressuring Iran to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons and on supply and support for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. If New START goes down, or is further delayed, Russian cooperation could wane, if not end.
• Our European allies are also looking on with growing concern, worried that the Continent’s greater security since the reset could again come under threat. Many are puzzled how Washington could agree to massive cuts in nuclear weapons with its mortal Cold War enemy, yet struggle to secure modest additional reductions two decades later.
• Republican senators must know this, which is why -- despite all their complaining -- so few have said they would vote against the treaty. The votes will be there.

Lugar Rebuke Own Party for Avoiding New START Debate, Wants to Force Vote Now - Josh Rogin for "The Cable" [link]

• In a stunning rebuke to members of his own caucus, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking Republican Richard Lugar (R-IN) said on Wednesday that the GOP is intentionally trying to put off a vote on the New START treaty with Russia, and avoiding a serious discussion about the treaty within the caucus.
• "At the moment, the Republican caucus is tied up in a situation where people don't want to make choices," Lugar told reporters in the hallway of the Capitol building Wednesday. "No one wants to be counted. No one wants to talk about it."
• "Every senator has an obligation in the national security interest to take a stand, to do his or her duty. Maybe people would prefer not to do his or her duty right now," he said. "Sometimes when you prefer not to vote, you attempt to find reasons not to vote."
• Lugar wants the Democratic Senate leadership to cut off negotiations immediately and force a vote on New START now, to compel senators to get off the fence and to end the endless stalling coming from his own side of the aisle.

The Party of National Security? - Editorial in The New York Times [link]

• The world’s nuclear wannabes, starting with Iran, should send a thank you note to Senator Jon Kyl. After months of negotiations with the White House, he has decided to try to block the lame-duck Senate from ratifying the New Start arms control treaty.
• The treaty is so central to this country’s national security, and the objections from Mr. Kyl — and apparently the whole Republican leadership — are so absurd that the only explanation is their limitless desire to deny President Obama any legislative success.
• In a statement on Tuesday, he said there is not enough time to act during the lame-duck session, given other unspecified items on the Senate agenda and the “complex and unresolved issues related to Start and modernization.”
• What Mr. Kyl did not mention is that there have already been countless briefings and 21 Senate hearings on the treaty — sufficient for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the country’s top military leaders, six former secretaries of state (from both parties), five former secretaries of defense (from both parties) and seven former nuclear weapons commanders to endorse it.
• The Republicans like to claim that they are the party of national security. We can only hope that other senators in the party will decide that the nation’s security interests must trump political maneuvering.

New START Treaty: Much Ado About Nothing - Max Boot for Commentary Magazine [link]

• A lot of foreign-policy experts I respect — including John Bolton, Eric Edelman, John Yoo, and Jim Woolsey — have come out against the ratification of the New START treaty, which would decrease American and Russian nuclear arsenals. For my part, I’m with Bob Kagan in wondering what the fuss is all about.
• Arms-control treaties between Moscow and Washington were a big deal during the Cold War when the Soviet Union was bent on global expansionism and the U.S. had to stand on the frontlines of freedom. But the Soviet Union is gone. Today’s Russia may be a local threat to its smaller neighbors, the likes of Georgia or Estonia, but on a global scale it’s more of a nuisance — certainly not an existential threat to the United States.
• One of the important benefits of the treaty is that, in the course of negotiations over ratification, Senate Republicans have won assurances from the administration that it will spend $80 billion over 10 years to modernize our nuclear program. Yet this doesn’t seem to be enough. Sen. Jon Kyl, who has been the lead GOP negotiator, now says he doesn’t want to see a vote during the lame-duck session.
• As Kagan suggests, this will allow the administration to blame Republican “obstructionism” if and when relations with Russia deteriorate. Therefore, Republican foot-dragging on ratification isn’t smart politics.

Security Trumps Politics - Editorial in The Times Record [link]

• Our country’s national security shouldn’t be subject to political gamesmanship. But that’s exactly what’s happening in the U.S. Senate, where the Republican leadership has been using lame excuses to hold up the ratification vote on the New START nuclear arms control agreement with Russia that would reduce both countries’ deployed strategic nuclear warheads from 2,200 to 1,550 by 2012
• Given that the New START agreement has the unanimous support of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and other key Pentagon leaders, it shouldn’t have been difficult to gain the eight Republican votes needed to reach the 67 votes required for ratification. Previous nuclear arms control agreements, initiated by Republican presidents, had received close to unanimous bipartisan support in the past.
• Nevertheless, on Tuesday, Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, bluntly told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., a floor vote on the treaty wouldn’t happen in this lame-duck session.
• Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, is right to call out Sen. Kyl in his response Tuesday to the minority whip’s statement on the New START vote: “The administration’s earlier $80 billion, 10-year proposal ... already provided the weapons labs with more than enough to get the job done. Further attempts by Sen. Kyl to ‘earmark’ still more funding for the weapons labs is fiscally irresponsible and politically unsustainable.”
• The silence of our two U.S. senators on this treaty is perplexing, given that both Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins have supported earlier arms control agreements negotiated by Republican presidents.
• We encourage them to speak up for national security and urge their Republican leaders to stop the politicking and ratify this treaty.
  

Obama to Attend Biden START Powwow - Laura Rozen for Politico [link]

• President Barack Obama will drop in on a meeting to be hosted by Vice President Joe Biden Thursday to discuss how to proceed on START treaty ratification, the White House said Wednesday.
• Among the other attendees will be Secretary of State State Hillary Clinton, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) and ranking Republican Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright, James Baker, and Henry Kissinger; former Secretaries of Defense William Cohen and William Perry, former National Security Advisor General Brent Scowcroft, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General James Cartwright; and former Sen. Sam Nunn.
•  Later, Obama and Biden will meet with the Congressional Democratic leadership in the Oval Office.