New START: Passage Difficult, But Necessary
Sep 14, 2010
John Isaacs: Passage Difficult, But Necessary
http://security.nationaljournal.com/2010/09/is-new-start-a-nonstarter.php#1640286
September 13, 2010 10:05 AM
NationalJournal.com
John Isaacs, Executive Director, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
This week, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry and Ranking Republican Richard Lugar are bringing the New START Treaty to a vote in committee. It is time to move to the treaty to the end game.
Senators like nothing better than avoiding a potentially difficult vote. A careful vote count indicates that 36 of 41 Republican Senators have yet to declare a position on the treaty. This situation is much better than that faced the health care bill, financial reform or the recently-proposed $50 million infrastructure program, where Republicans were overwhelmingly opposed from the beginning.
Kerry and Lugar are correct to move to a vote, and then work for a unanimous consent agreement for a floor vote. Most of the GOP Senators’ questions about the treaty relate to issues not within the four corners of the treaty: the pace of U.S. nuclear modernization and our commitment to missile defense, to name two. These are issues that can be dealt with through the resolution of ratification and White House negotiations with key Republicans. Even Arizona Senator Jon Kyl has called the treaty “benign.”
The treaty clearly enhances U.S. national security. It is overwhelmingly supported by our military leadership and past high ranking national security officials of both parties, including Republicans such as James Schlesinger, Henry Kissinger, George Shultz and Colin Powell. Only when the treaty enters into effect, the U.S. can resume onsite inspection of Russian nuclear weapons and facilities – suspended about 280 days ago.
When will the Senate floor vote be scheduled in the next few weeks or in a lame duck session? As usual, that depends on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell coming to a unanimous consent agreement. Difficult path ahead? Sure. But so many recognize the value of the treaty and the danger of defeating the it or letting it vegetate. Which is why former Defense Secretary Schlesinger said: “I think that it is obligatory for the United States to ratify [New START].”
New START Treaty Pivots Forward
May 06, 2010
The New START treaty has pivoted forward. The goal has been to get to 67 Senators supporting START ratification. That is no easy task in a Senate that is deeply polarized.
Sixty-seven ratification supporters requires gaining the support of at least 8 Senate Republicans. It requires the support of identified Republicans who are security hawks stepping forward. That's the significance of James Schlesinger's support for New START. He is a Republican who served Presidents Nixon and Ford in national security posts. He was an aggressive defense hawk as a Cabinet member and CIA head..
The current polarization adversely affects US national security. It will only be broken with people who have never been considered soft on national security coming forward to support New Start.
President Obama's leadership has made it more possible to gain the support of a James Schlesinger. Obama has created initiating and responsive efforts from the US that focus on building a stable US-Russian nuclear relationship. Stability, while protecting security, is a pre-condition for going forward for the Schlesingers of the world.
Obama had added success in convening leaders of 47 countries in mid-April. These countries agreed to a framework to safeguard vulnerable nuclear materials. They also agreed to find ways to overcome the worldwide nuclear threat. This is all of a piece to reduce nuclear weapons, be on the alert for terrorists and eventually get to zero on nuclear weapons.
Since the US is no longer the pariah it once was under the last President Bush's failed leadership, our effort in the Senate has to be for the Senate to advise and consent to the New START treaty. That's where James Schlesinger, a tough minded national security thinker, pushes matters forward. Schlesinger clearly stated that he believes the START treaty must be ratified. That makes him an important validator of the Treaty.
Schlesinger took it one step further by saying that failure to ratify START "would have a detrimental effect on our ability to influence others with regard to particularly the nonproliferation issue."
What do we do, as START advocates, with the advantage that Schlesinger's support and warning about the dire consequences of not ratifying START brings to the table? It is important to act before a new group of Senators are sworn in.
Let us focus on Republican Senate seats from states carried by Obama: Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio.
Senator Lugar (Ind) supports ratification. If all Democrats and Lieberman support ratification supporters have 60 votes with Lugar. In the remaining category are 9 possible votes for ratification. That is worth emphasizing with careful organizing of retired armed service members, respected civic leaders who understand why harm would come to the US if the treaty is not ratified, newspapers that supported these Senators in the past and the mainstream religious communities. These are all prime advocates.
In addition Senators Bond (Mo), Corker (Tn) and Graham (SC) have at times broken away from the pack. The same kinds of advocacy should be applied to them.
We all know that Senator Kyl (Ariz) is likely to play a key role in the debate and vote. The Schlesinger argument, advocated by retired armed service members and nuclear security experts, could play an influential role on Kyl. It has to be tried.
Schlesinger has a history of skepticism on arms control treaties. He fought with Kissinger in the days of whether there should be detente with the USSR. His credibility as tough minded--he's clearly a verify but do not trust thinker-- means that every Senator has the responsibility to be prudent and therefore advise and consent to the New Start treaty.
Senate Hearing With Schlesinger Damaging for New START Critics
May 03, 2010
By Travis Sharp and John Isaacs – May 3, 2010
Dr. James Schlesinger—former CIA director, Nixon/Ford Secretary of Defense, and the nation’s first Secretary of Energy—possesses major cachet in the security policy community, particularly with Republicans. The venerably conservative Wall Street Journal anointedhim “Yoda, the master of the universe” for nuclear strategists. This prominence explains why Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee nominated him to lead the conservative wing of the U.S. Strategic Posture Commission, which released its final report last year.
On April 29, however, at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s introductory hearing on New START, Schlesinger authoritatively refuted arguments advanced by New START critics. Was Schlesinger effusive about the treaty? No. Did he raise potential concerns about it? Yes. But he also powerfully, if subtlety, rebutted several key criticisms of New START while firmly endorsing ratification.
Let’s take this issue by issue