Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Republicans Potentially Aid Russia In Stockpiling Nukes, Destabilize Middle East With START Obstruction

Here is an excerpt from an article from The Telegraph:
The White House's Republican opponents threatened to block any effort to ratify the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in the year-end "lame duck" session, drawing a warning from US Vice President Joe Biden.

"Failure to pass the New START Treaty this year would endanger our national security," said Mr Biden, who stressed "the time to act is now and we will continue to seek its approval by the Senate before the end of the year."

The agreement "is a fundamental part of our relationship with Russia, which has been critical to our ability to supply our troops in Afghanistan and to impose and enforce strong sanctions on the Iranian government," he said.
Here is an excerpt from a Politico article by Meredith Shiner:
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia will build up its nuclear arsenal if the United States reflects a "very dumb nature" and fails to ratify the START treaty signed by the two nations this year.

In an interview with CNN's Larry King airing Wednesday evening, Putin warned that without ratification of the bilateral pact that President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed last spring, Russia would have to arm itself against new threats.

The treaty to cut each country's deployed nuclear warheads to approximately 1,500 is currently stalled in the Senate, where Democratic leaders are trying to get the 67 votes required to approve it before the end of the month.

"That's not our choice. We don't want that to happen. But this is not a threat on our part," Putin said of building up Russia's nuclear forces. "We've been simply saying that this is what all of us expects to happen if we don't agree on a joint effort there.

"We have been told that you'll do it in order to secure you against the, let's say, Iranian nuclear threat," Putin added about "new threats" posed by American plans for a European-based weapons program to defend against the Middle Eastern nation. "But such a threat, as of now, doesn't exist."
Now put both of these excerpts together and you can see where this article is heading - with Republican opposition to the new START treaty, they are pretty much creating a new arms race, and Russia won't be the only nation increasing ballistic stockpiles.

Putin touched upon an interesting dilemma - with a new arms race, nations like Iran would feel threatened positioned in between two super powers with increasing amounts of weapons, and in response, they would undoubtedly attmept to increase their stockpiles.  This would of course places unnecessary stress on the entire region, and as we know from the newest Wikileaks release, many Middle Eastern countries are wary of a nuclear Iran. 

In essence, Republican obstruction is setting up a powder keg in the Middle East...

2 comments:

  1. Well, this is where Obama needs to prove if he is a man or a mouse. He needs to schedule a press conference and have plenty of generals and admirals there from all of the services. Each of them needs to say how critical this treaty is and that if it is not passed our national security is threatened. The Party of No needs to understand, the wingnuts were not responsible for the landslide.

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  2. What I find interesting is that the GOP constantly refer back to Reagan and the good ol' days, and how Reagan defeated the Soviet Union, but they are doing more to bring back Russia and the Cold War, canceling out the progress of the Reagan Era...

    73% of Americans want the treaty ratified making this yet another issue the GOP are taking a minority view on.

    Obama needs to grow a spine and call them out on going against the will of the people - winning an election doesn't mean ignoring the public for your own agenda. I'm sure conservatives blame Obama for doing the same but considering the liberals seem unhappy with Obama, I think that argument would be faulty...

    I agree with START. I understand the GOP's argument but I think they are using it as an excuse to expand their hawkish goals...

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