By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--March 11, 2014
American Politics, News | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us
The Obama Administration's mismanagement of relations with Russia failed to prevent Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Now, in response to the Administration's plans to sanction the Russians responsible for the invasion, Moscow is threatening to suspend inspections of its nuclear forces -- inspections that are mandated by the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START). For once, however, Moscow's belligerence might actually advance America's national interests. New START is flawed beyond repair, and places Washington at a considerable geopolitical disadvantage. Therefore, the U.S. should withdraw from the treaty immediately -- regardless of whether Russia continues with the mandated inspections. In fact, Representatives Trent Franks (R -- AZ) and Doug Lamborn (R -- CO) make a similar case in a recent Moscow Times op-ed. For a number of reasons, the New START inspections are of scant relevance to the United States:Just a reminder that the Russians didn't just start taking Obama for a fool. They've been doing it throughout his presidency. And why not? He made it clear from the from get-go that he was more than willing to make whatever concessions Putin wanted in order to avoid confrontation with Russia, because his real interest was in socializing heath care and exploding spending domestically. Negotiate an "arms control" deal and you get plaudits from the MSM, who will help you claim that you achieved something on the national security front. Then you turn away from global leadership entirely and focus on more relevant matters, like sicking the IRS on your political enemies. This was inevitable. The Russians make a deal. The Russians come up with a pretext for violating the deal. America looks foolish. At least as long as America is laboring under leadership that doesn't understand anything about geopolitics, and really doesn't even care to know.In fact, shortly after New START entered into force, Russia announced the most extensive nuclear weapons modernization program since the end of the Cold War. Meanwhile, the U.S. nuclear weapons infrastructure continues to atrophy.
- Washington's information on Russia's strategic build-up comes from America's existing national technical means and intelligence means; New START provides little new data.
- New START accords Russia several "special" inspections that involve only the examination of U.S. sites; and
- The U.S. is responsible for the vast majority of New START strategic nuclear weapons reductions, while Russia is allowed to increase its own nuclear forces.
Support Canada Free Press
View Comments
Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain
Follow all of Dan’s work, including his series of Christian spiritual warfare novels, by liking his page on Facebook.