New START needs a new start

Ratification of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia has fallen into the partisan abyss we still call America.  The left claims failure to ratify will encourage Iran to get nuclear weapons.   The right fears grave impairment of the nation’s nuclear defenses.

Both claims are what the car guys call “BOOOOOOGUS.”  Iran is likely to go for nuclear weapons capability no matter what happens to New START, which will only marginally decrease America’s nuclear forces.  And failure to ratify will lead only to a pause in Washington’s reset with Moscow, which has good reason to react calmly.

That said, the Administration needs to get the treaty off to a new start if it expects ratification in either this lame duck Congress or the next.  Turning down the rhetoric and turning up some careful analysis of the facts would be a good place to start.  It is hard to believe that we can’t figure out a way to make a dispassionate and reasoned decision to reduce a number of weapons that hawks in both Washington and Moscow agree is excessive.

admin

Share
Published by
admin

Recent Posts

Okay, but still a long way to go

Is this a revival of the 1920s and 1930s America that tried to limit immigration,…

15 hours ago

Hope is where the wild things are

Hope lies wherever the restraining and suffocating writ of the Trump Administration does not extend.…

3 days ago

America made a giant mistake

It will take more time for Americans to fathom the mistake they have made. But…

6 days ago

Serbia is going backwards

I received this plea today. The issues are not new but now the situation is…

2 weeks ago

Might doesn’t make right, but it’s winning

Trump can't get anything out of Putin because the American President has already given too…

2 weeks ago

Neither nothingburger nor whopper

Putin has weathered sanctions so far. And Trump shows no signs of taking advantage of…

3 weeks ago