Kyl Sets Conditions for Backing New START

Today's top nuclear policy stories, with excerpts in bullet form.

Stories we're following today: Thursday, August 5, 2010:

Republican Senator Sets Conditions for Backing START - Reuters [link]

• President Barack Obama must show greater commitment to modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal to gain Republican support for an arms control treaty with Russia, the Senate's No. 2 Republican said on Wednesday.
• Senator Jon Kyl denied setting a price to support the strategic arms reduction pact known as the "new START." But he told reporters the commitment he was seeking could cost up to $10 billion more than the amount the administration has pledged to modernizing U.S. nuclear weapons.
• Kyl's demands would be difficult to meet by the end of the year. He wants Congress to appropriate extra funds and he also wants to see administration budget plans.
• Senator Bob Corker, a Republican on the foreign relations committee, agreed with this assessment. "I think there's about a $10 billion gap" between what the administration has proposed and what is needed, Corker said.

New START - A Sensible Next Step - The Times Record [link]

• The overwhelming consensus of the current and retired military leaders and former government officials who have weighed in on the treaty is that [New START] is an essential next step in moving both countries — and the world — farther down the path of nuclear disarmament.
• Among the list of supporters of this New START treaty: Former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, James Baker and Colin Powell and former Secretaries of Defense James Schlesinger, Frank Carlucci and William Cohen.
• This should not be a partisan issue, and Maine’s Republican senators are conspicuously quiet on an issue that both have supported in the past.
• Given their previous support of earlier nuclear arms reduction treaties, Sens. Snowe and Collins should get off the fence and add their voices to Sen. Lugar’s. Doing so would send a strong signal to their fellow Republicans that this is not the issue, or the time, to engage in the partisan politics of gridlock.

Wedge Issues Go Nuclear - Ben Goddard in The Hill [link]

• Partisanship again carries the day on Capitol Hill as Republicans force a delay on the ratification vote of the New START treaty. Now this critical piece of national-security business gets delayed until after the midterm elections.
• Those opposed to New START understand the real world of advocacy politics and have quickly gained the upper hand over the more traditional and cautious groups that have historically lobbied quietly behind the scenes for disarmament measures.
• With some smart messaging, the partisan nature of this debate could well work against Republicans. Those who favor New START should be mounting an aggressive media, Internet and grassroots campaign pointing out that congressional opposition to the treaty is purely partisan.
• Republican candidates especially need independent voters in this election, and their opposition to the treaty can become a wedge issue. At the very least, it can force Republicans to support the treaty rather than be obstructionist.
• But to accomplish that goal, proponents of New START need to start playing a much tougher game than they have to date.

Partisan Obstructionism Threatens National Security - Joe Cirincione in The Huffington Post [link]

• The original START treaty negotiated by Ronald Reagan expired in December 2009--and so did the system of inspections that puts U.S. officials inside Russia's nuclear weapons bases, checking each weapon poised to destroy an American city. The New START treaty restores and improves these on-site inspections.
• In a clear admission that there are no longer any significant substantive issues blocking treaty approval, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Reuters yesterday: "All they have to do is find enough money to satisfy Senator Kyl."
• As of August 4, it has been 242 days and counting since START I expired and we lost our on-site inspectors in Russia. This new treaty has got to be a top priority for the Administration.
• Every day without New START in force is another day we don't know for sure what is going on with Russia's nuclear weapons. That is not good for America.

Obama Offers Iran an Opening on Engagement - David Ignatius in The Washington Post [link]

• President Obama put the issue of negotiating with Iran firmly back on the table Wednesday in an unusual White House session with journalists.
• "It is very important to put before the Iranians a clear set of steps that we would consider sufficient to show that they are not pursuing nuclear weapons," Obama said, adding: "They should know what they can say 'yes' to."
• Obama's sense that the time is right for diplomacy is shaped in part by what he called "rumblings" from Tehran that the sanctions are having a greater effect than the Iranians expected.
• What came through in Obama's upbeat presentation was the administration's view that for all Tehran's bombast, the United States and its allies have the upper hand.

Counting Down to Zero - Newsweek [link]

• It's impossible to walk out of the film Countdown to Zero without having a strong opinion on whether the United States should continue to develop and warehouse nuclear weapons.
• Still, I initially walked away from Countdown feeling deeply skeptical of the nuclear-eradication movement.
• After long conversations with Scott Ritter, Bruce Blair, and James Mahaffey, I am ready to surrender my reservations and sign on to the initiative to eradicate nuclear weapons in the world.
• It is not impossible if done slowly and with comprehensive safeguards. The eradication of nuclear weapons is something American presidents have been talking about since JFK was in office. Now it's time to do more than talk.