New START Reflections and Kudos
Posted by David Shorr
The issues of nuclear weapons and arms control are basically where I got my start (sorry) in foreign policy. My formative experiences as an advocate were in the early-80s nuclear freeze movement. The core argument was pretty straightforward: there was no valid military or security rationale for having the tens of thousands of n-weapons already in the US and Soviet arsenals, never mind adding a lot of new ones. Added nuclear forces would literally be overkill -- the capacity to "make the rubble bounce," as we used to say. That's why my nomination for Quote of the Debate goes to Sen. Lamar Alexander, who argued that New START deserved support because...
it leaves our country with enough nuclear warheads to blow any attacker to kingdom come
That pretty much says it. As long as we have enough to retaliate and deter, the rest is tougher-than-thou political posturing. It was clear from the outset that this treaty would separate the sober-minded from the alarmist. The support for New START from the traditional Republican mandarins and military leaders was no surprise. Just as predictable were the conjured imbalances and vulnerabilities. The Right just moves farther and farther right; have they really been complaining about a far-Left agenda? Really?
Critics seem to have lost sight of the real problem: stemming the spread of nuclear arms to countries like Iran and North Korea. This is their blind spot. They seem oblivious to the connection between our own credibility -- for which disarmament is the good faith price under the NPT -- and our ability to forge a united international front and keep the heat on Iran. Oblivious might be too strong a word. Last night I watched Sen. Thune propose an amendment that sought guarantees of continued Russian support for the Iran effort. Rather than merely continue down the path of cooperation with Moscow, let's subject our bilateral arms control to constant tests and demands of Russia's reliability on Iran. Talk about what-have-you-done-for-me-lately...
But back to the celebration and some well-earned kudos. Part of my excitement about the Senate vote traces to my role in the election of one of the new senators. For several years I was Sen. Al Franken's main foreign policy adviser before and during his campaign, so I take special pride in his vote to ratify New START.
Finally, I want to sing the praises of key voices for this debate particularly here on the blogosphere. First off, Max Bergmann of the Think Progress Wonk Room (and a Democracy Arsenal alum) has been all over this issue from the start beginning. On the journalistic side, Josh Rogin has provided terrific coverage on his Cable blog over at Foreign Policy. Right here at DA, Kelsey Hartigan has done a great job as our resident New START watcher. And last but not least, Ploughshares Fund President Joe Cirincione as been a relentless tweeter. While I've focused my plaudits on the blogosphere, this has clearly involved huge efforts by the administration to negotiate and push the treaty forward, by senators and their staff to debate and ratify it (THANK YOU, Senators Kerry and Lugar), and the advocates and analysts of the arms control community to open the political space and spur things along.