Morning Bell: Merry Christmas, Moscow

Conn Carroll / December 22, 2010

In the spring of 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a plastic button that was supposed to read “reset” on both sides, once in English and once in Russian. But while the Obama Administration got the English part right, the State Department got the Russian word for “reset” wrong, instead emblazoning the button with the word “overload.”

With the Senate set to ratify New START sometime today, that error might just prove prophetic as already identifiable flaws in the treaty grant the Russians numerous opportunities to pressure for restrictions to American missile defense capabilities. The Senators voting for this treaty should be vigilant to resist any further erosion of our sovereign right to self-defense.

The first order of business will be to ensure that President Barack Obama follows through on the promises he made in his letter to the Senate to fully develop a U.S. missile defense system in Europe. Senators should also monitor any new rounds of nuclear and defense arms negotiations with Russia to make sure they do not repeat the mistakes of New START. Already there are troubling reports of negotiations about further U.S. reductions of launchers and warheads. With the rise of China and other nuclear states, the U.S. should not undertake any further nuclear reductions that would favor Russia as strongly as New START does or would increase U.S. vulnerability to those that possess nuclear weapons now or in the future. (more…)