They Should Reset Before They START
Todd Thurman /
The president has signed the START Treaty with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev but the Senate still has to ratify the treaty before it means something. Heritage has laid out all the problems of the treaty in a new paper. Here are some of the “highlights”, or “lowlights”, of the current treaty.
The Administration claimed that there would be a 30% reduction in strategic Warheads is not true. The Administration likes to point out that Russia will be limited to 1,550 warheads, but, according to the treaty, they can have 2,100. Not a 30% reduction at all. Another flaw in this treaty is that the supposed “limits” on Russian launchers are not very rigid. Under the treaty Russia can deploy aircraft loaded with Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). Under START only the U.S. has to cut launchers.
Built into the treaty is an application for limits on conventionally armed strategic weapons. This is curious because when Obama signed the Nuclear Posture Review, he stated that we would rely on more conventional responses as opposed to nuclear retaliation. Does this treaty make us more, or less safe than we currently are? (more…)