No wonder the GOP and the Teavangelists want to block the New START
“Conservatives split with U.S. military leaders over U.S.-Russia nuke treaty
By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 19, 2010; 11:01 PM
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.
But five Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said in a recent report that New START was "a bad deal." They added that U.S. military leaders had made assumptions about the pact - including that Russia will honor it - that are "optimistic in the extreme…
Jameson is part of a group of retired military officers who have been traveling the country and meeting with senators, civic groups and journalists to promote the treaty. The general, who retired in 1996, said it was the first time he had taken on such a mission.
"In the past, I was on active duty when those sorts of things were negotiated," he told reporters. "In the past, I think there was this sense this was a bipartisan effort, there was no concern about ratification."
Today, he added, "there is chagrin that not enough people . . . even remember the Cold War."
McConnell makes it official: Obama is Public Enemy No. 1
7:52 am November 4, 2010, by Jay Bookman
“I’ve been hesitant to make too much of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s statement a few days ago that “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” It seemed over the top, like something McConnell said off the cuff, in the heat of battle, and probably regretted.
Surely it was more important to McConnell as a public servant to get millions of Americans working again, or to restore the nation’s financial health, or to stop Iran from getting the bomb. Surely working toward those and other national goals took priority over trying to defeat Obama, especially in difficult times such as these.
Silly, silly me.
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2010/11/04/mcconnell-makes-it-official-obama-is-public-enemy-no-1/
Republicans in a post-post-9/11 era
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Suppose that during the previous administration the Democrats had opposed President Bush's efforts to protect airplanes from would-be bombers and had blocked his strategy to keep nuclear weapons out of terrorists' hands.
It's a safe bet Bush would charge, as he did more than once during his presidency, that Democrats are "not interested in the security of the American people." Other Republicans would no doubt be running ads juxtaposing Democrats with Osama bin Laden, or alleging, as they did then, that Democrats are giving "comfort to America's enemies."
Yet right now, Republicans are providing the comfort. They are objecting loudly to new airport security measures designed to detect bombs hidden under clothing. And they are blocking a Senate vote on a treaty with Russia that is that is critical to securing loose nukes and keeping Iran from gaining the bomb…
danamilbank@washpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111902596.html
Cassi Creek:
The word “new” in the term “New START” is sufficient cause for the GOP and its right wings to wish to block its ratification. “New Deal,” “New Frontier,” scary words that might mean someone is getting something “they didn’t pay for.” Anything newer than the 19th century, anything progressive in nature, anything that might mean we have to recognize the existence of other nations, other cultures, and other political systems scares the crap out of the party of old white people and the terminally deluded voters who keep returning them to office.
The Teavangelists, the latest manifestation of the Christian fanatics that make up America’s brand of Taliban and grand inquisitors, can’t wait to ally with the aging GOP in hopes of scrapping those parts of the Constitution that prevent the nation being demolished and recast as a theocracy. The two mobs along with an alarming number of other citizens have grabbed onto the dogma of “American exceptionalism.” They claim to believe, and probably do, that the U.S. is “ordained by God” to be the exemplar for all other nations to emulate. This doctrine has roots in the New England Puritan colonies – founded by people so religiously intolerant that they were essentially ejected from England
Excerpted and linked above are recent articles concerning the New START ratification process. The Obama administration wants this ratified now. From my vantage point, I see no reason for any resistance to a treaty that reduces the threat of nuclear weapons deployed against this nation and its citizens. We are no longer in a global power structure with the Soviet Union. China is unlikely to use nuclear weapons against us as they can crush our economy without firing a single round of small arms if they should choose. No other nation with known nuclear capability poses a threat to us currently.
Our goal of isolating Iran and blocking their access to nuclear weaponry depends upon maintaining good relations with other nations, particularly Russia. Allowing political and religious fanatics who have no background knowledge of the START to use it as a political football in hopes of overturning the results of the last Presidential election indicates utter stupidity on the part of our citizenry. Our military leaders favor ratification of this treaty. They are the people who have to maintain national security. As such, they have a collective historical and professional knowledge base that must be respected.
The published goal of putting party politics ahead of national security and the welfare of our citizens is frankly criminal. We make our military subservient to the civil government for historically sound reasons. We send them out to defend us, they have consistently placed their own safety, and well-being behind that of the nation, following orders as required. In turn, they should be able to expect that their lives not be wasted and their knowledge not discarded in political games that benefit no one but politicians.
The nuclear threat today is greatest from people who believe that they can buy a spot in eternal paradise by killing non-believers for their deity. Not surprisingly, the greatest internal threat to our nation comes from a similar group of religious fanatics who think they are charged by their deity to convert the world to fanatical evangelical Christianity. Historically they have been willing to kill others in the process and I doubt that pattern will change. A populace that thinks they will immediately be reborn if they die a martyr has little interest in preventing nuclear war between nations and equally little interest in cooperating with other nations to prevent terrorism using nuclear weapons.
The greatest chance of terrorist gaining access to nuclear weapons today is not Russia, China, India, or even Pakistan; but a group of GOP and Teavangelist members of Congress who want to put party politics ahead of national security. The danger is quite real and is growing with each day these idiots pretend to acting as national leaders.
Perhaps they don’t trust out military leaders to know their profession. I trust these generals and admirals to do what our military has always done, protect the United States regardless of the idiot demands and displays of stupidity that come from Congress. I trust the Russians to act in their best interests as they did during the Cold War. MAD works because people have taken the time and trouble to find out what failure means. Sanity in Russia equates to sanity here, to sanity in Israel, in Britain, etc. But because of an entirely different cultural map, placing religious fanaticism ahead of national and civil interests and security, it does not equate to sanity in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other Mid East nations. Nor, it now seems does sanity of the Cold War MAD defense apply to the U.S, Congress and the Teavangelists any longer. A faction of our elected leaders has chosen to emulate the Taliban and the Inquisition. The nuclear clock is counting down once more because the GOP consistently puts party above nation.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment