Is President Barack Obama sowing the seeds of mistrust in Washington by playing “fast and loose with the truth in pursuit of political ends”? Heritage’s James Carafano writes that revelations about the President’s signature New START Treaty certainly make it look that way.
Under the treaty, Russia will be permitted to build a dozen more nuclear weapons if they so choose — and Russian officials have said they plan to build more launchers. The United States, though, must cut weapons and platforms, including a quarter of its launchers. And that’s contrary to the representations the Obama Administration made in pushing for the treaty. Carafano explains:
As [scholar Keith] Payne notes, in pressing for Senate approval of the arms pact, the State Department emphatically declared, “The Treaty does not force the United States to reduce unilaterally.”
Indeed, the Obama administration promised the treaty would reduce U.S.-Russian nuke inventories by 30 percent. The facts revealed in the data exchange sure make it look like, in selling New START, the White House sold the Senate a bill of goods.
There are other revelations, too, calling into question the President’s approach to national security. Carafano notes that the President threatened to veto a bill that would have modernized U.S. nuclear stockpiles, despite his promise to update the arsenal when pushing for the treaty. And the White House is also pursuing deeper reductions in nuclear arms.
Carafano says that Obama’s nuclear half truths will have repercussions among U.S. allies.
America’s friends and allies are waking up to the fact that our president does not always mean what he says on matters of foreign policy and national security. Czech officials announced last week they are pulling out of Obama’s new missile defense plan for Europe . . .
Questioning allies, questionable promises and quizzical policies suggest a national security approach that keeps left and right hands distant strangers.
