Lugar to Present Compromise Resolution on New START Ratification

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

Stories we're following today: Monday, September 13, 2010.

Lugar to Offer Response on Weapons Pact - The Washington Post [link]

• The senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will present Democrats on Monday with his version of a resolution of ratification for the new START treaty, which may offer the best opportunity to gather needed GOP support for passage of the nuclear weapons agreement with Russia.
• Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) has been consulting with his Republican colleagues on the committee to come up with language that meets their varied concerns.
• Postponed from August, Thursday's markup session may determine whether treaty ratification can pass the committee and go on to the full Senate for a vote this year, according to congressional sources.
• "It can state the intent of the Senate and can force the president to certify executive branch policy or intent, but it cannot control the future nor should it change the terms of the treaty itself," said Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association.
• In response to one of the most contentious issues raised by Republicans - future funding to modernize the nuclear weapons complex - Lugar is contemplating a provision that states that if the billions of dollars proposed in Obama's 10-year stockpile plan are not sought by the president and approved by Congress, the United States may not remain a party to the treaty.
• Republicans on the foreign relations panel have said they do not believe the $10 billion for nuclear-complex modernization over the next 10 years will be enough, but there is little the Obama administration can do to guarantee future spending beyond his term in office.

Consensus is Clear: Ratify New START Now – Lt. Gen. Dirk Jameson in USA Today [link]

• Working at the sharp end of the nuclear spear taught me to respect the skill and wisdom needed to prevent a nuclear confrontation.
• It has been more than 250 days and counting since the U.S. lost access to the critical intelligence we get from on-site inspections of Russia's nuclear arsenal. In fact, these critical verification procedures will cease altogether unless the Senate acts to ratify the New START Treaty. Without prompt Senate action, American national security will be at risk.
• Defense Secretary Robert Gates assured the Senate that the treaty has the "unanimous support of America's military leadership." The new treaty will actually make our missile defense plans easier and less costly, according to Director of the Missile Defense Agency, Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly.
• Every day that we delay is another day we aren't getting the security and intelligence benefits we urgently need. The Senate has done its due diligence; it should offer its advice and give its consent.

Senate Should Speed Approval of New START Arms Treaty with Russia - Avis Bohlen and Daryl G. Kimball in NJ Star Ledger [link]

• This week, the Senate will consider a treaty that could define our country’s nuclear security for the next decade. Lawmakers must act swiftly to approve it.
• It’s been over eight months since New START’s predecessor, START I, expired. During that time, there hasn’t been a single American nuclear inspection in Russia. Existing satellite monitoring and other intelligence operations provide a rough picture of Russia’s nuclear forces. But they can’t provide certain crucial information — like the number of warheads inside a given missile — that on-site inspections can.
• New START will help strengthen our joint efforts to keep nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists, as well as keep pressure on Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program, which it could use to build the bomb. Without New START, Russian support will be far harder to obtain.

State Department on New START: It’s Time to Vote - Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy [link]

• "This administration has provided the Senate with more information than is even necessary to make an informed decision," said Undersecretary of State for Arms Control Ellen Tauscher. "There's been very robust outreach, every question has been answered, and it's time to take the vote."
• Since the old START treaty expired last December, there has been no verification of Russian nuclear activities and no process to work with Russia on areas of mutual concern - a fact that Tauscher focused on in making her case for the necessity of ratifying the new treaty quickly.
• Tauscher also said that the administration's proposal for huge increases in the budget for the nuclear complex and modernization of the nuclear stockpile, which was put forth in the fiscal 2011 budget request, is its final offer -- even though some Senate Republicans have called for larger increases.

Finesse Needed on "Difficult" Iran: Russia Senator - Reuters [link]

• Describing the Islamic republic as a difficult neighbor, Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Federation Council of Russia, or upper parliament chamber, said Moscow had no hidden agenda in building and supplying fuel to Iran's first nuclear power plant.
• "We do not have any illusions about the character of the Iranian regime at all," he told a Geneva meeting of the International Institute of International Studies think tank. "That is why, if we cooperate with Iran in the field of nuclear energy when we do Bushehr, this is how we try to keep these guys playing by the rules of the IAEA...This is the only legal mechanism to keep them cooperating with the international institutions."
• To ease proliferation concerns, Russia will take back spent rods that could be used to make weapons-grade plutonium.

View from the Dark Side

Lessons from Jimmy Carter: Weakness Invites Aggression – James Carafano in The Examiner [link]

• Carter had tried accommodating America's enemies. He cut back on defense. He made humility the hallmark of American diplomacy.
• Our foes responded with aggression: Iranian revolutionaries danced in the rubble of the U.S. Embassy; the Soviets sponsored armed insurgencies and invaded Afghanistan.
• Later in his presidency, Carter tried to look tough. He proposed a modest increase in defense spending; pulled the United States out of the Moscow Olympics; and slapped an embargo on wheat exports to the Soviet Union. These actions hurt high jumpers and American farmers, but didn't faze our enemies. It was too little, too late.
• The Obama Doctrine possesses many Carteresque attributes: a heavy reliance on treaties and international institutions; a more humble (and, often, apologetic) U.S. presence around the globe, and a diminishment of U.S. hard power.
• If President Obama continues to pursue a Carteresque foreign policy -- talking softly while whittling away at the stick -- he will only put American lives and the prospects of peace at greater jeopardy.