Iowa's Senators Should Vote to Ratify New START

“In
the scope of a broader consideration of nuclear disarmament and
national security issues, New START is an important, but minor step.
That politicians and diplomats current and past have fixated on it,
takes our eye off the prize that a nuclear weapons free world could be.“

Last Tuesday, I was on a conference call with a group that included Dr. Vic Sidel, who was one of the 1980 founders of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Sidel was present in Oslo, Norway when the group received the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize. Our discussion centered around the New START Treaty that is currently being considered by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Most on the call believe that the Obama administration has not been aggressive enough in reducing military spending and the administration's proposed a budget for nuclear weapons that is much larger than we would like to see. New START is viewed by the group as a legitimate next step on the road to nuclear disarmament. Standing alone, it is a modest step, something to be checked off the list as done before moving to more pressing issues in the campaign for nuclear disarmament.

New START may be a beginning, but it is not a solution. Regrettably, New START has also become a political football in the United States Senate, escalated in importance far beyond the modest nuclear weapons reductions it proposes.

Blog for Iowa has written about the politicization of the New START Treaty, which we believe should be considered on its merits. (Check out our previous posts, “Iowans Should Challenge the Military Establishment,”  “Iowans Can See the Partisanship,”  and “START and Senator Grassley in Williamsburg, Iowa”). Based on the numerous articles appearing in other media, there is much horse trading going on behind the scenes in the United States Senate regarding “modernization” of the United States nuclear arsenal and disclosure of the treaty negotiating documents to see what was said regarding “missile defense.”

Indicative of the horse trading aspect of New START ratification, in an August 3 press release, Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said of the New START Treaty, “I emphasized to members of the Committee at our meeting this afternoon that they should be prepared to mark up a resolution of advice and consent soon after we return from recess. This will give senators ample time to complete their review of the relevant materials. Over the coming weeks, I look forward to working with Senator Lugar and members of the Committee to craft a resolution of ratification that can enjoy broad bipartisan support.” As one person on our call indicated, the administration does not have the 67 votes needed for ratification.

Rather than consider New START on its merits, Senator Kerry must mark up the resolution of advice and consent like any bill. Rather than consider the New START Treaty on its merits, there is a discussion about who gets what after the Senate vote for ratification. It's about the money: how much to spend on modernization, and a commitment from the administration that it actually will be spent. This even though the Senate Minority Whip, Jon Kyl (R-AZ) denies that it is about the money.

Regardless of all the hyperbole, horse trading and, to use an Iowa term, pig manure being slopped around the capitol, ratification of the New START Treaty is important to Iowans. If nuclear deterrence matters, it would enable a process of verification with the Russians, who along with the United States, own the vast majority of nuclear weapons that exist in the world. The verification process lapsed on December 9, 2009 when the previous START Treaty expired.

In the scope of a broader consideration of nuclear disarmament and national security issues, New START is an important, but minor step. That politicians and diplomats current and past have fixated on it, takes our eye off the prize that a nuclear weapons free world could be.

Senator Kerry has the votes to move the New START Treaty out of committee. Now is the time to urge Senators Harkin and Grassley to vote for ratification when the treaty is considered by the full senate.

~Paul Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County and weekend
editor of Blog for Iowa. E-mail Paul Deaton