Mitt Romney's Worst Foreign Policy Mistake

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

Stories we're following today, Wednesday, July 7, 2010:

How New-START Will Improve Our Nation's Security - John Kerry in The Washington Post [link]

• Even in these polarized times, anyone seeking the presidency should know that the security of the United States is too important to be treated as fodder for political posturing.
• Sadly, former governor Mitt Romney failed that test in arguing that ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with Russia would be a mistake.
• He disregarded the views of the best foreign policy thinkers of the past half-century, but more important, he ignored the facts.
• Serious people may differ over elements of the agreement, but after 10 hearings we have produced a public record that makes the case for ratification and rejects the narrow, uninformed political objections advanced by Romney.
• New START will not constrain our ability to defend ourselves. On the contrary, it will improve our national security by reducing the number of nuclear weapons held by the United States and Russia, and by improving relations with our old adversary.
• Note: To read Mitt Romney's full op-ed from July 6, click here.
• For a more technical analysis of Romney's claims, see Ploughshares Fund grantee Pavel Povdig's recent blog post here.

Wrong-Headed Romney - Fred Kaplan in Slate [link]

• In 35 years of following debates over nuclear arms control, I have never seen anything quite as shabby, misleading and—let's not mince words—thoroughly ignorant as Mitt Romney's attack on the New START treaty in the July 6 Washington Post.
• There is nothing in the treaty that places any limits on the U.S. missile-defense program. (And several generals, many with a vested interest in the program, have so testified before the Senate foreign relations and armed services committees.)
• Yes, the treaty's preamble notes that there is a relationship between strategic defense and strategic offense. This is Arms Control 101.
• True, the treaty does not limit tactical nuclear weapons, but a Senate rejection of the treaty won't limit tactical nuclear weapons, either.
• Next time he speaks out on nuclear weapons, he should read up a little bit.

Misrepresenting the Prague START - The American Conservative [link]

• How many dishonest and misleading things can Mitt Romney pack into one op-ed?
• Romney’s first lie was remarkably brazen even for him: "He [Obama] castigated Israel at the United Nations but was silent about Hamas having launched 7,000 rockets from the Gaza Strip." Neither of these things happened.
• A couple sentences later, Romney lies about missile defense in Europe: "He acceded to Russia’s No. 1 foreign policy objective, the abandonment of our Europe-based missile defense program."
• Unlike the previous plan, which guarded against non-existent Iranian ICBMs, this one could theoretically defend against medium-range missiles that Iran actually has.
• So missile defense in Europe has not been abandoned, and despite what Moscow may say the Prague treaty apparently does not rule out missile defense, either, so Romney is complaining about something that hasn’t happened.
• Of course, it could be that Romney is just incredibly uninformed and knows none of these things, but this is supposedly someone who prides himself on his mastery of whatever subject he discusses.

Mitt Romney Embraces the Far Right's Nuclear Extremism in Opposing START - Max Bergmann in the Wonk Room [link]

• [Mitt Romney's July 6 Washington Post op-ed] demonstrates how dangerous and extreme the anti-Obama narrative has become.
• The fact that Romney thinks that the worst foreign policy mistake of the Obama administration is a modest treaty that reduces limits on nuclear weapons and extends and updates the verification and monitoring measures says something about how far out of the mainstream the conservative right has moved.
• But moreover this vividly shows that there is an emerging civil war within the Republican establishment. This treaty has unanimous support from the military and is supported by senior and respected Republican foreign policy officials from every Republican administration of the last 40 years.
• But what is never expressed and is conveniently missing in the op-ed is the alternative vision to the START treaty that Romney is proposing. That vision is nuclear anarchy.
• Rejecting START means eliminating the treaty that has ensured nuclear stability between the US and Russia in the post Cold War era.

A View from the Dark Side

Obama's Worst Foreign-Policy Mistake - Mitt Romney in The Washington Post [link]

• Given President Obama's glaring domestic policy missteps, it is understandable that the public has largely been blinded to his foreign policy failings.
• The president's New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New-START) with Russia could be his worst foreign policy mistake yet. The treaty as submitted to the Senate should not be ratified.
• New-START impedes missile defense, our protection from nuclear-proliferating rogue states such as Iran and North Korea.
• To preserve the treaty's restrictions on Russia, America must effectively get Russia's permission for any missile defense expansion.
• Whatever the reason for the treaty's failings, it must not be ratified: The security of the United States is at stake.