Opinion

New START now

Font Size:

If twisted logic were an Olympic sport, James Carafano would be a gold medalist.

In his most recent piece he seems to take issue with my opposition to the idea of developing a massive, costly, and destabilizing missile defense system aimed at thwarting Russia’s nuclear deterrent.  He then goes on to say that if I believe that, I should be opposed to the New START treaty, which puts no limits on missile defense development.

All I can surmise is that Mr. Carafano is so enamored of old thinking on arms control that he can’t make basic distinctions any more.

As I have made clear in my other Daily Caller pieces, the text of the New START treaty – the only part that is legally binding – puts no meaningful limits on missile defense.  Russia may choose to worry about what might happen decades from now with respect to U.S. missile defense developments, but those concerns have nothing to do with the treaty, which stands on its own as a positive step towards a safer world.

On this point, it’s worth remembering that generations of military leaders, from the current heads of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency to seven former commanders of U.S. nuclear forces all support New START, and all agree that it does not restrict missile defense development. As the commanders noted in a recent letter to Congress, “[T]he treaty provides no meaningful constraint on U.S. missile defense plans.”

Given this reality, different analysts can still have different opinions on how the United States should choose to use its freedom to develop missile defenses.  As Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has noted, it is not U.S. policy to try to field a missile defense system that would negate Russia’s nuclear deterrent, because doing so would be “enormously destabilizing, not to mention unbelievably expensive.”

Furthermore, the focus of U.S. missile defense efforts for the past two decades has been to address potential threats from regional powers like North Korea or Iran, not from Russia.  If Mr. Carafano wants to change that approach, he should say so.

That brings me to Mr. Carafano’s second point, that there is no rush to ratify the New START agreement.  In fact, prompt ratification of the treaty is essential. As Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) recently noted, if the treaty is not finished by this December it is “no longer an issue of parliamentary debate, it’s an issue of national security.” He made this point because without New START, there will be no verification system to help monitor what Russia is doing in the nuclear sphere.  It doesn’t make sense to deprive our military of that critical information, as noted by the seven former commanders of our nation’s nuclear forces cited above.

New START is a modest but essential first step towards bringing the nuclear threat under control.  By reducing each side’s deployed strategic warheads to 1,550, it reinforces a basic position of parity while reducing force levels by about one-third. It puts in place a sophisticated verification system that includes satellite monitoring, information exchanges, and 18 annual on-site inspections. It will set the stage for further talks with Russia on eliminating short-range, tactical nuclear weapons. And it will give the U.S. greater leverage in persuading other nations to reduce their own nuclear arsenals. And it puts no limits on the development of missile defenses.

William D. Hartung is the director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel