The Obama Administration's Unprecedented Commitment to Modernization

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

Stories we're following today, Tuesday, December 14, 2010:

Unprecedented Commitment to Modernize - Thomas D’Agostino in The Washington Times [link] 

• The debate over New START has ushered in a new consensus on the need to modernize our nuclear deterrent and the resources required to get the job done. All that is left is for Congress to vote this month to finish the job by approving New START and the president's investment in our nuclear security.
• For the first time since the end of the Cold War, we have a broad national consensus on the role nuclear weapons play in our defense and what is required to maintain our deterrent. When President Obama released his Nuclear Posture Review earlier this year, he outlined the need to move toward a smaller stockpile and made a commitment to modernize the remaining arsenal and the complex that supports it.
• Over the next decade, the Obama administration has proposed investing more than $85 billion to modernize the nuclear stockpile, recapitalize the infrastructure that supports it and reinvigorate the science and technology at the core of our stockpile stewardship efforts.
• Having worked on NNSA budget issues through the administrations of three presidents representing both parties, I can say with confidence that this is the most robust, sustained commitment to modernizing our nuclear deterrent since the end of the Cold War.
• My predecessor, former NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks, put it best, saying he "would have killed" for budgets like this and for the top-level support we have gotten from the White House.
• There always will be some who question whether what we have proposed is enough. But no one can question this administration's commitment.
• The time has come to bring this debate to a close. Both the New START and modernization are in the national security interest. The Senate should approve both.

Supporters Increasingly Confident of US START Vote - David Alexander in Reuters [link]

• Administration officials and other proponents of the New START nuclear arms treaty with Russia expressed increasing confidence on Monday that they have the support needed to ratify the accord once the U.S. Senate brings it to a vote.
• "Our belief is, as you've seen a number of Republican senators come out, that ... this is a treaty ... that has the votes to pass the Senate and I believe will pass the Senate before Congress goes home for the holidays," Gibbs told a White House briefing.
• Increased confidence in ratification of the treaty follows a series of announcements in recent days by Republicans who threw their support behind the accord, including former President George H.W. Bush. Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins endorsed the agreement on Friday. Senators Judd Gregg, George Voinovich and Lamar Alexander have said they were leaning toward supporting it.
• The treaty has the support of the Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the rest of the military establishment.
• "It's an issue of national security," retired Brigadier General John Adams, a member of the Consensus for American Security, told a briefing on Monday. "They need to do their duty and put this to a vote. And I believe if it comes to a vote it's going to get ratified."

Clinton: Iran Made "Good Start" in Nuclear Talks - Reuters [link]

• Iran has made a good start in talks with big powers about its nuclear program and progress should not be affected by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's decision to sack his foreign minister, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday.
• Clinton noted that Tehran had agreed to a follow-up meeting next month in Istanbul, and signaled that the so-called "P5+1" powers would continue to press Iran to give up what they believe is a nuclear weapons program.
• "Whether one person or another is foreign minister is not as important as ... what the policy of the Iranian government is in dealing with the international community on this very important matter," Clinton said.
• Iran's chief nuclear negotiator is Saeed Jalili, who last week in Geneva agreed to another set of talks next month but restated Iran's refusal to discuss a halt to uranium enrichment.

Pass New START Treaty, Now - The Cleveland Plain Dealer [link]

• The Senate should speedily ratify a new strategic arms treaty with Russia. There is no excuse for further delays, especially since on-site inspections of Russia's nuclear stockpiles ended a year ago when the old Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expired.
• Reducing Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals is too important to remain hostage to partisan politics.
• Ohio Sen. George Voinovich, a key Republican vote, is leaning to the "yes" column on the New START treaty, as well he should.
• He said in a recent interview that he views strategic arms control and the verification of nuclear arsenals as a paramount national security interest, independent of any disagreements he might have with the Obama administration.
• GOP Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona has said he doesn't think the Senate will have time to debate and vote this week, but that's nonsense. Snowe notes that the Senate has held 18 hearings on New START since it was signed in April. It's time to pass it.

Gregg, Shaheen May Both Back Nuke Pact - Shira Schoenberg in The Concord Monitor [link]

• New Hampshire's senators may vote the same way on ratification of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, a continuation of a treaty signed in 1991.
• Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is a strong advocate for ratification and recently led a discussion of the treaty at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
• "Arms control treaties have a long history of strong bipartisan support and the New START Treaty should be no different," Shaheen said. "It is squarely in the national security interests of the United States, and ratification will send a strong message to our allies that America will continue to be a global leader in the effort to reduce the threat of nuclear proliferation."
• President Obama needs nine Republicans to join Democrats to ratify it, and Republican Sen. Judd Gregg may be one of them. Gregg told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell that START should be fully debated and that he is "leaning towards supporting it."
  

A View From The Dark Side

U.S. Acquiesces to Russian Blackmail - Janusz Bugajski in The Washington Times [link]

• Since President Obama launched his detente with Moscow, Washington has bent over backward to accommodate Russia and gain its support in pressing security challenges. The Kremlin now views itself as indispensable and is intent on extracting maximum advantage from its hallowed position. Above all, Russia seeks to neutralize NATO and minimize the U.S. global reach.
• Moscow also seeks veto powers over troop deployments among new NATO members. It wants NATO to commit to stationing a maximum of 3,000 soldiers; if reinforcements were needed during a crisis, NATO would require Russia's consent.
• Moscow also has been invited to participate in NATO's missile-defense program and exploits that opportunity to divide the continent. Mr. Medvedev has proposed that Europe be split into two sectors of "military responsibility" to protect it from missile attack - one controlled by NATO, the other by Russia, encompassing all ex-Soviet states.
• In a clear admission that Moscow is blackmailing the White House, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates revealed that Russia could curtail supplies across Russian territory to NATO forces in Afghanistan if the treaty is not approved. Russia also may retaliate by reneging on sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear ambitions.
• Instead of more "resets," it may be time to upgrade the computer to better understand Moscow's motives.