Senator Jon Kyl and ten other Republican senators are attempting to derail the lame-duck Senate from ratifying the New START arms control treaty with Russia, while lacking any legitimate reasons for doing so - an illustration that the GOP is anything but the party of national security as they so like to claim. According to the New York Times:
The treaty is so central to this country’s national security, and the objections from Mr. Kyl — and apparently the whole Republican leadership — are so absurd that the only explanation is their limitless desire to deny President Obama any legislative success.
The Republicans like to claim that they are the party of national security. We can only hope that other senators in the party will decide that the nation’s security interests must trump political maneuvering.
The treaty would restart mutual inspections with Russia while limiting each nation to 1,550 warheads and 700 launchers. If the treaty collapses it would do immense damage to American credibility and could thwart efforts to rally many countries, including Russia, to press Iran to halt its illicit nuclear program.
Senator Kyl’s excuses for this obstruction are as dubious as they are ambiguous. In a statement on Tuesday, Kyl said there is not enough time to act during the lame-duck session, given other unspecified items on the Senate agenda and the “complex and unresolved issues related to START and modernization.”
He of course failed to provide sufficient detail for his remonstrance, because his objections are nonexistent or immaterial. 21 Senate hearings are not enough for this political party hack and saboteur? Kyl’s motives are transparently diabolical, for he surely is informed of the countless experts and military leaders who have endorsed the treaty, including five former secretaries of defense (from both parties), six former secretaries of state (from both parties) and seven former nuclear weapons commanders as well as the current Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates.
His purported concern over “modernization” is nothing less than absurd, considering President Obama has committed an extra $84 billion over 10 years to modernize America’s nuclear weapons program, which is a 20% increase above the spending levels of the Bush administration.
Pushing the vote until next year could delay the treaty's ratification for months or even years as new senators request additional time to study the issue forcing the committee process to begin all over again, which means it could be some time before the treaty is ever heard on the floor.
Republican Senator Richard Lugar, the Senate’s leading expert on arms control, warned that failure to act would place the country “in some national security peril.” But Kyl and his cohorts seemed unfazed about the country’s national security and more focused on political grandstanding. Lugar registered disgust with his own party:
In a stunning rebuke to members of his own caucus, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking Republican Richard Lugar (R-IN) said on Wednesday that the GOP is intentionally trying to put off a vote on the New START treaty with Russia, and avoiding a serious discussion about the treaty within the caucus.
Lugar also warned that failure could endanger the Nunn-Lugar effort to secure loose nuclear materials throughout the former Soviet Union, representing an even bigger risk for national security:
"There are still thousands of missiles out there. You better get that through your heads," Lugar said, directing his comments to members of his own party.
Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) further hindered the process by ridiculously trying to tie START ratification to his personal mission to waive visa requirements for Polish citizens. His obvious thirst for reelection has trumped America’s safety, made more revolting by the fact that large parts of Ohio were settled by Polish immigrants, and second- and-third generation Poles are extremely influential in Ohio government, according to foreign policy magazine.
Lugar blasted the Republican ruse as nothing more than a smokescreen, and talked about how they are trying to machinate excuses for political gain:
"Every senator has an obligation in the national security interest to take a stand, to do his or her duty. Maybe people would prefer not to do his or her duty right now," he said. "Sometimes when you prefer not to vote, you attempt to find reasons not to vote."
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Comments
Well, we all know how inept democrats are, so I'm willing to wait until the republican adults can write one up themselves and then we can sign a treaty that will benefit Americans and not Russians.
I can't tell if you are being serious or sarcastic.
The only "adult" Republican in the proverbial room appears to be arms control expert Republican Senator Richard Lugar: failure to act would place the country “in some national security peril. There are still thousands of missiles out there. You better get that through your heads."
Clearly, our founding fathers wanted treaties to require near-consensus (at least 2/3 Senate vote.) The downside of this is that you can have minority moron politicians (admittedly held hostage to their chest-thumbing anti-diplomacy moron right-wing base) screwing with our national security interests for purely political reasons.
Very good article. My compliments.
Voinovich's attempts to ease the immigration laws to aid a particular group that would help keep him in office, which the author considers a "revolting" "thirst for re-election" that "trumps America's safety", is different from the Democrats' immigration reform proposals how exactly?
Immigration reform stands on its own and was not tacked on to unrelated bill so as to hold the bill hostage. Voinovich can introduce a separate bill if he wants to, but it's wrong to hold our national security hostage for his own gain.
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