Senator Bob Corker, a senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he will support sending a nuclear arms-reduction treaty to the full Senate under conditions that address his party’s questions about the pact with Russia.
Corker, of Tennessee, is among Republicans who have questioned whether the treaty limited the ability of the U.S. to fully develop defenses against missiles and whether President Barack Obama’s plans to maintain the effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex are sufficient.
Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, the Foreign Relations panel’s top Republican and a supporter of the treaty, has offered a resolution of approval that he says addresses opponents’ concerns. Its provisions include a statement that Russia’s opposition to U.S. missile defense plans in the treaty’s preamble doesn’t put legal restrictions on the U.S. ...
Republican critics led by Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, who isn’t a member of the Foreign Relations panel, have questioned whether the accord would hamper U.S. missile defenses and criticized the administration’s 10-year nuclear-arms modernization plan as insufficient. The tens of billions of dollars proposed by Obama would pay for upgrading nuclear laboratories and taking other steps to ensure the reliability of the nuclear arsenal.
Lawmakers who favor cutting nuclear weapons might balk at spending on the arsenal without the assurances in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty that the number of weapons will shrink in the long term, Tauscher says.
Read the complete article here.
Comment: I've noted a number of concerns in the media that indicate that this deal is not as transparent to the US public as it should and needs to be, much like Obama does with most controversial subjects. There are too many questions pointing to a lax verification process with Russia.
Likewise I do not trust Lugar, who was Obama's mentor in the Senate concerning matters of foreign policy. I had heard for a number of years that Obama was going to following in the foot steps to become a successor to Lugar as some have billed Lugar to be of Sam Nunn. Unfortunately or fortunately it now looks like that mantel will fall to the dimwit John Kerry.
The US Senate should hold back any approval until the treaty is explained completely to the American public so we can have a better understanding and greater dialog. There should be no rush to get this through, only complete assurance to the public that our security is not being short changed for political expediency.
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