Arms Treaty With Russia Headed for Ratification

[WestVirginiaRebel]

NY Times:

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 67 to 28 on Tuesday to advance a new arms control treaty that would pare back American and Russian nuclear arsenals, reaching the two-thirds majority needed for approval despite a concerted Republican effort to block ratification.

Eleven Republicans joined every Democrat present to support the treaty, known as New Start, which now heads to a seemingly certain final vote of approval on Wednesday, as the Senate wraps up business before heading out of town. Voting against the treaty were 28 Republicans who argued that it could hurt national security.

“Today’s bipartisan vote clears a significant hurdle in the Senate,” said Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who led the floor fight for the treaty. “We are on the brink of writing the next chapter in the 40-year history of wrestling with the threat of nuclear weapons.”

The vote represented another bipartisan victory for President Obama, who emerged politically wounded from last month’s midterm elections but turned around to successfully press the outgoing Congress to enact several of his top priorities. At his behest, lawmakers passed an $858 billion package of tax cuts and unemployment benefits, and they ended the longstanding ban on gay men and lesbians serving in the military.

The New Start treaty was the last major challenge of the session for Mr. Obama, and in some ways the most emboldening for him. The tax-cut deal required the president to swallow a compromise that extended the expiring, lowered Bush-era tax rates even for the wealthy, costing him support within his own party. The overturning of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” military policy was driven as much by senators as by the White House.
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Like it not, here it comes...

[Sabre86]

The U.S. is completely f---ed.

 

We will lose about 100 of our Minuteman III ICBMs. Russia is adding new ones on a regular basis and is preparing to field a new "ultra-heavy" ICBM capable of dropping either a 20+ megaton warhead on the US, or up to 20 individual warheads.

 

We will be forced to retire about 1/2 of our nuclear capable bombers, so goodbye B-52 and B-2.

 

We will be forced to retire about half of our ballistic missile submarines or permanently disable their missile tubes.

 

We will not be allowed to retaliate with nuclear weapons, even if we're attacked by chemical or biological weapons.

 

Russia will have no restrictions on the number of tactical nuclear weapons or their use.

 

Russia will not be forced to de-MIRV their ICBMs or reduce their number. Our ICBMs have been de-MIRVed for years.

 

Russia can pull out of the treaty at anytime. We cannot.

 

Nearly all U.S. missile defense will be prohibited, Russia can do whatever kind of missile defense they want.

 

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Of course, this is the kind of treaty Democrats and RINOs just love, it hurts the U.S. even more.

[Casino67]

This is the White House explanation of the treaty.

 

 

The White House

 

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

March 26, 2010

Key Facts about the New START Treaty

 

Treaty Structure: The New START Treaty is organized in three tiers of increasing level of detail. The first tier is the Treaty text itself. The second tier consists of a Protocol to the Treaty, which contains additional rights and obligations associated with Treaty provisions. The basic rights and obligations are contained in these two documents. The third tier consists of Technical Annexes to the Protocol. All three tiers will be legally binding. The Protocol and Annexes will be integral parts of the Treaty and thus submitted to the U.S. Senate for its advice and consent to ratification.

 

Strategic Offensive Reductions: Under the Treaty, the U.S. and Russia will be limited to significantly fewer strategic arms within seven years from the date the Treaty enters into force. Each Party has the flexibility to determine for itself the structure of its strategic forces within the aggregate limits of the Treaty. These limits are based on a rigorous analysis conducted by Department of Defense planners in support of the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review.

 

Aggregate limits:

 

* 1,550 warheads. Warheads on deployed ICBMs and deployed SLBMs count toward this limit and each deployed heavy bomber equipped for nuclear armaments counts as one warhead toward this limit.

o This limit is 74% lower than the limit of the 1991 START Treaty and 30% lower than the deployed strategic warhead limit of the 2002 Moscow Treaty.

* A combined limit of 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments.

* A separate limit of 700 deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs, and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments.

o This limit is less than half the corresponding strategic nuclear delivery vehicle limit of the START Treaty.

 

Verification and Transparency: The Treaty has a verification regime that combines the appropriate elements of the 1991 START Treaty with new elements tailored to the limitations of the Treaty. Measures under the Treaty include on-site inspections and exhibitions, data exchanges and notifications related to strategic offensive arms and facilities covered by the Treaty, and provisions to facilitate the use of national technical means for treaty monitoring. To increase confidence and transparency, the Treaty also provides for the exchange of telemetry.

 

Treaty Terms: The Treaty’s duration will be ten years, unless superseded by a subsequent agreement. The Parties may agree to extend the Treaty for a period of no more than five years. The Treaty includes a withdrawal clause that is standard in arms control agreements. The 2002 Moscow Treaty terminates upon entry into force of the New START Treaty. The U.S. Senate and the Russian legislature must approve the Treaty before it can enter into force.

 

No Constraints on Missile Defense and Conventional Strike: The Treaty does not contain any constraints on testing, development or deployment of current or planned U.S. missile defense programs or current or planned United States long-range conventional strike capabilities.

 

(Source)

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This is not the entire text of the treaty, but it does explain the limits imposed on both of us. Is it right?

[NCJim]

START Treaty is Part of Obama's Effort to Disarm the United States