House Committee Vote Endangers American Security, Adds to Deficit

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

Stories we're following today - Friday, May 13, 2011:

HASC and Deficit Reduction: The Enemy is Us - The National Security Network [link]

• As Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn explained yesterday, "The defense budget alone cannot solve our deficit crisis. But it's hard to envision an overall solution - either economically or politically - that does not include some contribution from the 20 percent of government spending that goes toward defense."
• While the House Appropriations Committee passed a budget including modest Pentagon cuts, the House Armed Services Committee was busy adding back programs the Pentagon doesn't want.
• [In addition,] "The House Armed Services panel approved several amendments that would require presidential notification if specific aspects of the nation's nuclear targeting strategy are changed and keep ‘forward-deployed nuclear forces ... based in Europe."

House Armed Services Committee Toys With American Security - Kingston Reif for "Nukes of Hazard" a Center for Arms Control & Non-Proliferation Blog [link]

• As was the case last year, Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH) led the charge in offering risky amendments that could undermine American nuclear policy.
• According to Turner, the purpose of the bill is to hold the Obama administration accountable to the long-term commitments it made on modernization and missile defense during the Senate’s consideration of the New START treaty and limit the administration’s ability to pursue nuclear weapons reductions below New START levels.
• The practical effect of Turner’s legislation would be to lock in the status quo on nuclear policy for the next 10-15 years. According to a growing number of national security experts from both parties, this status quo is increasingly untenable.

The Game is Changing in Iran - Laicie Olson for The Register Citizen [link]

• Last year, a powerful computer virus called “Stuxnet” targeted Iran’s nuclear program.  Now, Iran claims to have identified a new threat. The virus, which Iran is calling “Stars,” may or may not be authentic. 
• Either Iran has shown its susceptibility to another damaging virus with the potential to set back its nuclear program yet again, or its announcement is an attempt to draw attention away from those issues it sees as far more damaging.
• Either way, Iran seems to be in a more vulnerable position than the last time it sat down at the negotiating table. If the United States and its allies can seize on this growing opportunity, it might eventually spell success.

Post-Bin Laden, It's Time to End the Threat of Nuclear Terrorism for Good - Robert Creamer for The Huffington Post [link]

• America must be just as relentless in achieving President Obama's goal of eliminating nuclear weapons from the planet as we were in pursuing bin Laden.
• The use of nuclear weapons in any part of the world would affect every living creature. Their use is simply unthinkable. Yet the United States and Russia maintain thousands on hair trigger alert. And terrorists who affirmatively desire to cause global Armageddon actively seek their use.
• The more nuclear weapons that exist in the world -- and more importantly the more weapons-grade fissile material that can be obtained to build a nuclear weapon -- the more likely it is that one, or many more, will actually be used.

EVENT: Inescapable, Unanswerable Contradictions: Five Fundamental Challenges to Nuclear Weapon Orthodoxy

• Ward Wilson of the Monterey Institute
• May 17, 2:00-3:30 p.m., Center for Strategic International Studies, 1800 K St., N.W., Washington, D.C., 4th Floor Conference Room
• RSVP to tspitzer-hobeika@csis.org

View From the Dark Side

New START: Press the prez - Editorial in The Pittsburgh Tribune [link]

• Having made one bad choice after another regarding the abominable New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, Republicans' best option now is to play implementation-funding hardball with the Obama administration.
• No GOP senator should have voted to ratify New START. And Republicans who did shouldn't have fallen for the vote-seeking White House's weasel-worded promise to maintain remaining U.S. nuclear weapons.
• Just by proposing the bill, Republicans help hold the White House to its promise to properly maintain America's nuclear arsenal -- a national-security imperative that's more critical than ever under New START.