Arms Control Amnesia. (Wall Street Journal – Opinion, July 7, 2009, by Kieth B. Payne.) ” The new talks with Moscow could put the U.S. nuclear deterrent in jeopardy…..Obama signed a preliminary agreement on a new nuclear arms treaty with Russian President Demtri Medvedev….Obama praised the agreement as a step forward….Medvedev hailed it as a reasonable compromise…. the new agreement not only calls for reduction….of nuclear warheads….but cuts for strategic launchers….and….calls for each side to be limited to be between 500 and 1,100 launchers each….it was Russia that pushed for 500 launchers.”
That the Russians set the limit for launchers poses a question – why? According to sources in the Pentagon the Russians were going to scrap 5oo old outdated launchers anyway. That means that Obama is scrapping our newer and current launchers – in essence Russia gains, by giving up nothing, but we lose because Obama is giving up something.
To the point – Obama does not seem have the capacity to understand how to negotiate for advantage. He is so caught up in looking good and non threatening to a country that, (despite whatever fantasy he may have), would love to see us fail.
The other “quid pro quo” of this deal that may have skunked the President, is the concession by Russia to allow U.S. overflights of Russian territory to resupply our troops in Afghanistan. Once again, the advantage goes to the Russians. For one, our fight in Afghanistan diverts Muslim jihadists in Russian territory to go fight in Afghanistan, and secondly it allows the Russians to monitor and measure our capacity to move and supply our forces in a war zone – another words they get to peek at our capabilities without spending a dime; again, they win – we lose.
It would seem that Obama is incapable of understanding the threat to our security, that he just brokered. One of my readers of offered the following Latin saying, Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum - ”If you wish peace; prepare for war.” Obama may want to think about that – he is seeking peace, but at the price of hampering our ability to go to war to protect that peace – and that is how wars are started. Just my opinion.
Beaudreaux
