CNN news 2010-12-27
A lot of debate over this treaty with executions by Democrats, Republicans stopped the approval simply because they wanted to deny President Obama an important political victory. Now we ask our flash brief analysts: Is it politics, is it a good move, or is this Start Treaty dangerous.
Lots of pretty dangerous, look, the end of the day, the Russians will have just as many nuclear weapons as we have, they can modernize. We said we're not going to. They have 10,000 strategic nuclear weapons, we have 1000. They're gonna have more weapons, better weapons than we are. They're not gonna do another treaty on strategic nuclear weapons, they're not gonna lead to a world without nuclear weapons.
In the treaty, it does not allow Russia to have more nuclear weapons. If limits to equal priority to equal levels, to 1550 strategic nuclear warheads. The treaty does not address what Europe is all concerned about which is tactical nuclear warheads, which Russia has more than the United States. But by passing this treaty, we can begin to move on to the negotiation on tactical nuclear warheads.
I think it's just very little question yet, there's a lot of politics going on and the opposition to this treaty. You clearly have, a bipartisan consensus before this treaty outside the senate. For every living Secretary of State, almost every single’s former secretary of defense and national security advisors, the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff of fourth, so why don’t you step outside the Senate, you see a broad bipartisan pushed for approval, it's only the politics of the Senate that is to let in this approval…security pact. So, politics you bet. The senate Republicans declared Tuesday enough members are willing to back the treaty, because they think it's the interest for the country
I will vote to ratify the new Start treaty between the United States and Russia, because it leaves our country with enough nuclear warheads to blow any attacker to the kingdom come.
Well, that's one way to put it, and the other is: when a Start treaty could help reshape the Obama's presidency a loss would relegate his images to a president who raised some hopes but couldn't get the job done.
I'm Jim Clancy, and you've been briefed.