FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 21, 2010 | CONTACT: Kevin McVicker
Shirley and Banister Public Affairs
(703) 739-5920/(800) 536-5920
kmcvicker@sbpublicaffairs.com |
CFTR: STOP START
Reaganites Urge Defeat of "Fatally Flawed" TreatyALEXANDRIA, VA – Citizens for the Republic Executive Vice President Bill Pascoe – responding to Senate consideration of the New START Treaty, which severely restricts America's ability to deploy ballistic missile defenses and simultaneously reduces verification standards, while totally ignoring the most dangerous class of nuclear weapons – today urged the Senate to defeat ratification of the treaty in the Lame Duck Congress.
"Treaties should be ratified when they strengthen our defenses, not weaken them," said Pascoe. "Unfortunately, this treaty – negotiated by an Obama Administration apparently intent on kowtowing to the Strong Men of Moscow – weakens our defenses by restricting our freedom to deploy ballistic missile defenses, significantly reduces the verification standards we need to ensure that the treaty's terms are followed, and focuses on the wrong class of nuclear weapons.
"In pursuit of this agreement, the Obama Administration's negotiators acceded to the Russian view that U.S. development and deployment of ballistic missile defenses is an offensive move," Pascoe continued. "American Presidents from Ronald Reagan through George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush rejected this view, and rightly so. But Barack Obama seems to agree with Moscow that strengthening one's defenses is a threatening, offensive maneuver. He is wrong.
"Further, it is instructive to compare the New START Treaty to the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty negotiated by President Reagan's Administration," Pascoe continued. "The INF Treaty negotiated by Reagan had the most comprehensive verification regime ever enacted in a U.S.-Soviet arms control treaty. That regime included on-site inspection. By contrast, the New START Treaty allows for fewer on-site inspections, and only allows inspections of declared nuclear sites.
"But it's not the declared sites that most worry us," Pascoe continued, "it's the undeclared sites. Ratifying this treaty, with its weak inspection regime, would set a dangerous precedent for future arms control treaties with other regimes.
"Moreover, the treaty focuses on only one class of nuclear weapons – a class of nuclear weapons that, not surprisingly, Moscow is eager to limit. Meanwhile, the treaty totally ignores tactical nuclear weapons – a class in which Russia possesses a huge advantage, and has no interest in limiting: By some estimates, Russia has ten times as many tactical nuclear weapons as does the U.S. With the end of the Cold War, most of the scenarios – and virtually all of the likely scenarios – regarding the use of nuclear weapons involve Russian deployment of tactical nuclear weapons. Why they were left out of the treaty is beyond reason.
"This treaty is fatally flawed," Pascoe concluded, "and no promises from the Obama Administration can fix it. The Senate should defeat its ratification, and get about the business of shutting down the 111th Congress once and for all."