Republicans Take Obama Hostage

It seems the last week and a half of the lame duck session in the U.S. Congress is not going to bring certainty to the ratification of the New START Treaty between the United States and Russia. Barack Obama was recently encouraged to ask Vice President Joseph Biden “to focus on this issue day and night until it gets done,” and expressed his belief that “there is no higher national security priority” than ratification of the New START Treaty. However, despite its best efforts, the Barack Obama administration has failed to persuade Republicans to say “yes” to the reduction of U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals.

Jon Kyl, leader of the Republican Senators, has put forward his main argument in favor of postponing consideration of the ratification of the New START Treaty. Sen. Kyl believes that it is wrong to ratify a decision on such an important issue during the lame duck session and emphasizes the fact that decisions on this kind of arrangements have never been taken by outgoing legislators. In addition, according to the inexorable senator, the treaty should be examined more rigorously. This is hardly possible when the Congress has more pressing issues on its agenda, namely adoption of the budget and a decision on tax breaks for wealthy Americans. Although the latter issue has already been solved (not in favor of the Obama administration), the White House continues to insist on quick ratification of the New START Treaty.

Having laid their cards on the table and making concessions to the Republican opposition on the allocation of additional resources for modernization of U.S. nuclear complex and research laboratories (which will cost over 80 billion dollars), the Obama administration is apparently lost trying to figure out what else can be done in this situation to secure 67 cherished senate votes out of 100, which are needed for ratification of the New START Treaty.

This situation seems to be worrying even for the U.S. Department of Defense, who is surprised by the fact that Capitol Hill ignores not only views of current Pentagon representatives (including the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the head of the U.S. Strategic Command and Robert Gates), but also the opinions of five highly-respected former U.S. defense ministers who support ratification of the New START Treaty. This, according to the DoD, questions any actual trust in the U.S. Military.

Moreover, apart from ignoring the position of the U.S. Department of Defense, Republicans also disregard the opinions of six former Secretaries of State, several former National Security Advisors and dozens of scientists and experts. According to the interview of Atlantic Council vice president Damon Wilson with Rossyskaya Gazeta, opponents of ratification of the treaty have received everything they could dream of, and even more, from the White House: “I believe that the treaty will eventually be ratified, but Moscow should arm itself with patience, make itself comfortable and watch how the U.S. politicians deal with each other. This is not a question of Russian-American relations, but one of the attitude of the Republican Party towards the current President of the United States. Of course, if the New START Treaty is turned down by the Senate, consequences for cooperation between the United States and Russia will follow.”