bullypulpit
11-23-2010, 07:47 AM
Senator John Kyl (R-AZ) was, for some reason or other given final say in whether or not the START Treaty signed by President Obama and Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev in April of this year. Since then, Senator Kyl, time and again, has refused to bring a treaty vital to national security to a vote.This despite bipartisan support for the treaty and unanimous support from the military.
In a stunning rebuke to members of his own caucus, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking Republican Richard Lugar (R-IN) said on Wednesday that the GOP is intentionally trying to put off a vote on the New START treaty with Russia, and avoiding a serious discussion about the treaty within the caucus.
"At the moment, the Republican caucus is tied up in a situation where people don't want to make choices," Lugar told reporters in the hallway of the Capitol building Wednesday. "No one wants to be counted. No one wants to talk about it." - <a href=http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/11/17/lugar_rebukes_own_party_for_avoiding_new_start_deb ate_wants_to_force_vote_now>Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN)</a>
An unusual split has opened between conservative Republicans and the American military leadership over the U.S.-Russia nuclear treaty, with current and former generals urging swift passage but politicians expressing far more skepticism.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) "essential to our future security." Retired generals have been so concerned about getting it ratified that some have traveled around the country promoting it.
Seven of eight former commanders of U.S. nuclear forces have urged the Senate to approve the treaty...
...Retired Lt. Gen. Dirk Jameson, the former deputy commander of U.S. nuclear forces, said Friday that it was 'quite puzzling to me why all of this support [for New START]...is ignored. I don't know what that says about the trust that people have and the confidence they have in our military...
..former head of the Central Command and Pacific Command retired Adm. Willim J. "Fox" Fallon said of New START: "If you've had experience with this stuff, and a sense of where we've been, how far we've come . . . this is an absolute no-brainer."- <a href=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111906497_pf.html>The Washington Post</a>
Admiral Fallon's statement is based on a false assumption...That being that GOP opposition to the START treaty is based in anything resembling rational thought.
And God knows, the GOP bitched often enough that we should listen to the "generals on the ground" when it served their purposes. But when what military commanders have to say on a matter fails to meet the GOP leadership's sniff test, as in the GOP's stated goal of undermining Obama's presidency, then the advice of military commanders is ignored in favor of political chicanery.
Re-establishing inspection protocols, which lapsed in 2009, would help reduce the risk of loose Russian nukes falling into the hands of Al Qaeda or those in its orbit. But it would seem that national security takes a back seat to the GOP's obsessive desire to destroy Barrack Obama for no more reason than he's a Democrat. Oh, and yeah, a black man.
In a stunning rebuke to members of his own caucus, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking Republican Richard Lugar (R-IN) said on Wednesday that the GOP is intentionally trying to put off a vote on the New START treaty with Russia, and avoiding a serious discussion about the treaty within the caucus.
"At the moment, the Republican caucus is tied up in a situation where people don't want to make choices," Lugar told reporters in the hallway of the Capitol building Wednesday. "No one wants to be counted. No one wants to talk about it." - <a href=http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/11/17/lugar_rebukes_own_party_for_avoiding_new_start_deb ate_wants_to_force_vote_now>Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN)</a>
An unusual split has opened between conservative Republicans and the American military leadership over the U.S.-Russia nuclear treaty, with current and former generals urging swift passage but politicians expressing far more skepticism.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) "essential to our future security." Retired generals have been so concerned about getting it ratified that some have traveled around the country promoting it.
Seven of eight former commanders of U.S. nuclear forces have urged the Senate to approve the treaty...
...Retired Lt. Gen. Dirk Jameson, the former deputy commander of U.S. nuclear forces, said Friday that it was 'quite puzzling to me why all of this support [for New START]...is ignored. I don't know what that says about the trust that people have and the confidence they have in our military...
..former head of the Central Command and Pacific Command retired Adm. Willim J. "Fox" Fallon said of New START: "If you've had experience with this stuff, and a sense of where we've been, how far we've come . . . this is an absolute no-brainer."- <a href=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111906497_pf.html>The Washington Post</a>
Admiral Fallon's statement is based on a false assumption...That being that GOP opposition to the START treaty is based in anything resembling rational thought.
And God knows, the GOP bitched often enough that we should listen to the "generals on the ground" when it served their purposes. But when what military commanders have to say on a matter fails to meet the GOP leadership's sniff test, as in the GOP's stated goal of undermining Obama's presidency, then the advice of military commanders is ignored in favor of political chicanery.
Re-establishing inspection protocols, which lapsed in 2009, would help reduce the risk of loose Russian nukes falling into the hands of Al Qaeda or those in its orbit. But it would seem that national security takes a back seat to the GOP's obsessive desire to destroy Barrack Obama for no more reason than he's a Democrat. Oh, and yeah, a black man.