“Nuclear
disarmament represents a long term commitment to reducing and
eventually eliminating the threat of nuclear weapons. President Obama
has suggested that his dream of a world without nuclear weapons may not
happen in his lifetime. …the nuclear disarmament debate is something our senators should de-politicize.”

Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) negotiations between the United States and Russia have been going on for some time. The negotiators are scheduled to meet on January 25 in Geneva, Switzerland to resume the talks. Administration officials believe that agreement can be reached within a few weeks. Negotiation and ratification of START is an essential part of President Obama’s nuclear disarmament policy.

In 21st Century Iowa, this may seem like boring stuff. We should remember that as long as nuclear weapons exist, there is a chance they could be used. Even the prospect of a regional nuclear war, between India and Pakistan for example, may have life threatening effects here in Iowa. The prospect of a nuclear winter and the resulting loss of crop production caused by a limited nuclear weapons exchange in Southeast Asia should send shivers down the spine of every Iowa farmer. At a minimum, farmers and citizens should be paying attention. I believe Iowans are paying attention and when I asked Senator Grassley a question about START last week, the whole group of about 125 people was silent and listening.
 
At his town hall meeting in Williamsburg, Iowa last Tuesday, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) expressed what he was looking for from the START treaty in one word, “parity.” He also said that he had heard “talk in Washington” that the President might by-pass the Senate and put the treaty into force by executive order. I hope that the talk Senator Grassley is hearing will go out the other ear because if the negotiations are successfully completed, we should be confident that the treaty will come to the senate for ratification.

There is a legal argument that the president can implement arms reduction agreements without Senate approval. The truth is that the Russians would not go along with entry into force by executive order. They want a legally binding agreement that will last 20 or 25 years, and that goes beyond the Obama administration, which may only be three more years or seven more at the most. Another president could come into office and reverse such an executive order.

It is also clear that others in the Obama administration would not go along with this either, notably Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. There would be political costs if President Obama took this approach to START. They are political costs his team would reject paying. The “talk” to which Senator Grassley referred was probably just a wind blowing against what may seem to some Republicans to be the deliberate, imminent and inevitable tide of a world without nuclear weapons.

Nuclear disarmament represents a long term commitment to reducing and eventually eliminating the threat of nuclear weapons. President Obama has suggested that his dream of a world without nuclear weapons may not happen in his lifetime. This struggle began shortly after the explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. Because resolving the role of nuclear weapons in the world requires a long term (i.e. beyond any senator’s six year term) commitment, the nuclear disarmament debate is something that our senators should de-politicize.

If the right wing of the Senate, led by Jon Kyl (R-AZ), is suggesting that the president would bypass the senate on a nuclear disarmament treaty, they are mistaken.

When I think of Senator Grassley’s answer to the town hall question about START, I have a follow-up question: will you take the lead in de-politicizing the debate over nuclear disarmament and do what’s best for our children and grandchildren?

If the administration achieves its work of negotiating a fair treaty that reduces nuclear weapons arsenals in Russia and the United States, we should urge Senator Grassley to speak in favor of ratification right away, and vote for it when the treaty hits the Senate for debate later this year.

~Paul Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County.  Check
out his blog, Big Grove Garden.
   E-mail Paul Deaton

Click here to send a message to Senator Grassley on the START treaty.