The Russian Duma 'tentatively approved' the new START treaty after the Senate vote, but made it clear that final approval will not be voted on until after the legislators return from their holiday break - which end January 11th.
And after that, the treaty also needs to be ratified by the upper house, the Federation Council.
So much for all the urgency of getting this passed in the Lame Duck session!
Actually, there's no doubt that the Russians will eventually ratify this - after all Obama gave them everything but the beer concession for the Redskins' games.We've traded in nuclear superiority and missile defense in exchange for some dodgy 'verification' and the hopes the Russians will help out with Iran. But it's obvious that they wanted to send him a message, and that message was not exactly complimentary.
Here's Serge Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister talking about the treaty: "This treaty takes our relations with the United States to a qualitatively new level of equality, parity and balance of interests."
"he ratification is a priority task for the state," Lavrov said. "But we must do it in such a way that no one has any doubts about our determination to firmly demand the fulfillment of the treaty's conditions."
Exactly. Obama wants the US to be just another nation, and not the sole global superpower. In his mind, we need to be taken down a peg.
I hope the Republicans who were in such a huge hurry to jam this through are happy with themselves.
"This treaty takes our relations with the United States to a qualitatively new level of equality, parity and balance of interests." I have to give the Russians credit. They know exactly what to say and how to say it. Of course the fact that they are aided and abetted by their lackeys in the American and world news media is extremely helpful to them. In actuality what this does is it gives Russia who had a huge military advantage over America before the treaty an even bigger military edge.
ReplyDelete"Exactly. Obama wants the US to be just another nation and not the sole global superpower. In his mind, we need to be taken down a peg." There may be some truth to this. He has associated with various leftists who may believe in this narrative about American power, however, I do not think this is the primary thought here.
As I'm typing this America is certainly a powerful and influential nation, however, the nation is far from the "sole global superpower." Right now the most powerful militaries on earth are those fielded by Russia and China NOT the one fielded by America. If I'm aware of this, then foreign policy personnel who pushed for this treaty are also aware of this. As such, they know that if America wishes to survive and even thrive in the coming years some type of coordial reations with Russia and China the world's top countries is an absolute MUST.
As such, I can understand why some type of treaty with the Russians would be pushed for but I don't think this is a good one as it compromises the one dedent area of self defense our nation has. Also, the statement by the Russian about ensuring enforcement of the treaty is interesting. American compliance is not an issue. I see no way to ensure Russian compliance. This is another problem with this. Bottom line we could and should have done better.
Can the House simply refuse to fund areas of the treaty that are not good for America? There's got to be something we can do here.
"This treaty takes our relations with the United States to a qualitatively new level of equality, parity and balance of interests." I have to give the Russians credit. They know exactly what to say and how to say it. Of course the fact that they are aided and abetted by their lackeys in the American and world news media is extremely helpful to them. In actuality what this does is it gives Russia who had a huge military advantage over America before the treaty an even bigger military edge.
ReplyDelete"Exactly. Obama wants the US to be just another nation and not the sole global superpower. In his mind, we need to be taken down a peg." There may be some truth to this. He has associated with various leftists who may believe in this narrative about American power, however, I do not think this is the primary thought here.
As I'm typing this America is certainly a powerful and influential nation, however, the nation is far from the "sole global superpower." Right now the most powerful militaries on earth are those fielded by Russia and China NOT the one fielded by America. If I'm aware of this, then foreign policy personnel who pushed for this treaty are also aware of this. As such, they know that if America wishes to survive and even thrive in the coming years some type of coordial reations with Russia and China the world's top countries is an absolute MUST.
As such, I can understand why some type of treaty with the Russians would be pushed for but I don't think this is a good one as it compromises the one dedent area of self defense our nation has. Also, the statement by the Russian about ensuring enforcement of the treaty is interesting. American compliance is not an issue. I see no way to ensure Russian compliance. This is another problem with this. Bottom line we could and should have done better.
Can the House simply refuse to fund areas of the treaty that are not good for America? There's got to be something we can do here.
To trade in nuclear superiorty would imply that we had nuclear superiorty. We didn't have such superiority over the Russians, however, we may have enough of a nuclear deterent to be useful for national defense. What we've done is make the nation even harder to defend which means we may have to spend more money we don't have on more expensive conventional weapons and our nuclear deterent is further compromised.
ReplyDeleteRussia's opposition to missle defense has never been reasonable. The systems being proposed were not going to be adequate to defend against a Russian nuclear attack nor were they being designed with such a use in mind. The American side should have been more assertive in pointing this out and insisted on some type of agreement that allows for missle defense, a robust nuclear deterent, and perhaps as important some type of agreement that preserves American dignity!!
This is the type of agreement a nation signs after being defeated. Couldn't we have at least made the Russians earn this on the battlefield. I'm sure the Republicans who agreed to this are quite proud of themselves. I'm sure someone compensated them quite well.
Sorry about the multiple posts here. The number of lies we've been told about this treaty are breathtaking. We were told that the Russian government had already ratified this treaty and the only thing holding it up was American agreement. (While not explicitly stated, the implication was American intransignence and unreasonableness was delaying the treay.) Now we learn the Russians have not even ratified it yet!!
ReplyDeleteClearly it seems we should have waited to seat the new Congress before passing such important legislation. Because we were clearly lied to on the urgency and circumstances on the signing of this treaty we should have grounds under international law to demand the treaty either be scrapped or renegotiated. Not that I expcet this President to do that of his own accord but it does at least hopefully give us some hope that somehow Congress can intervene and derail this.