Editorials
GOP: Party of National Security?
Playing Politics at Nation’s, World’s Peril
The world’s nuclear wannabes, starting with Iran, should send a thank you note to U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl (Rep., Ariz.).
After months of negotiations with the White House, he has decided to try to block the lame-duck Senate from ratifying the New START arms control treaty.
The treaty is so central to this country’s national security, and the objections from Sen. Kyl--and, apparently, the whole Republican leadership--are so absurd that the only explanation is their limitless desire to deny President Barack 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, the first with Russia in a decade, calls for both sides to reduce their deployed warheads modestly to 1,550 from 2,200. More important, it would restore “verification,” inspections and other exchanges of information about the American and Russian arsenals.
If the treaty founders, it would also do huge damage to American credibility just as President Obama is making progress rallying many countries--including Russia--to press Iran to curb its illicit nuclear program.
So, what are Sen. Kyl’s objections?
In a statement last week, he 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.”
What Sen. Kyl did not mention is that there have already been countless briefings and 21 Senate hearings on the treaty--sufficient for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the country’s top military leaders, six former secretaries of state (from both parties), five former secretaries of defense (from both parties) and seven former nuclear weapons commanders to endorse it.
As for concerns about “modernization,” President Obama has already promised an extra $84 billion over 10 years to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex and its arsenal. That would raise spending 20 percent above the levels of the Bush years and is far more than we think is necessary.
If Sen. Kyl were just one vote, the White House and the country could safely ignore him. Two-thirds of the Senate is needed for ratification, so the treaty cannot get through without some Republican support. And most Republicans have not taken a public stand, apparently, awaiting Sen. Kyl’s instructions.
U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (Rep., Ind.), the Senate’s leading expert on arms control, isn’t waiting. Last week, Sen. Lugar repeated his strong endorsement of the treaty. He urged President Obama to press ahead with the vote, warning that a failure to act would place the country “in some national security peril.”
He also warned that, if the treaty is defeated, the congressional consensus for vastly increased financing for the nuclear complex could shatter. We hope that members of his caucus are listening closely.
The White House said that it would push for ratification before the end of the year. President Obama needs to fight hard. He needs to bring the case for New START directly to the American people and demand that the Republicans explain why their opposition is anything more than political obstructionism.
The stakes couldn’t be higher.
The above is an editorial of the New York Times.
