How the GOP Won on START

Written by John Vecchione on Saturday December 25, 2010

Conservatives are distrustful of the Obama administration's worldview. Why then did the START arms control treaty get so much GOP support?

The START treaty with Russia has been ratified by the Senate during the lame duck session.  It received 71 votes in the Senate and opposition to it was muted.  My view of the treaty is approximated here.  I just don’t think it matters much.  We will reduce arms and the Russians will take away nukes they can not maintain.  If I were in the Senate, I would have voted for it.  That many conservative senators are also doing so signals a sea change in American conservatism.

Russia is an untrustworthy, authoritarian, kleptocracy with a dying population and incentive to thwart the U.S. regionally almost everywhere it can.  The Obama administration has a dovish, self-loathing world-view that I do not trust and, in fact, detest.  So why is START getting so much Republican support?

First, Senator Kyl and other senators got tangible benefits for their treaty votes.  The U.S. will continue to modernize its nuclear forces so that they do not rust.  Kyl also obtained commitments on missile defense.  In the age of the North Korean and Iranian nuclear missile threat -- rather than mutual assured destruction -- missile defense is more plausible, more effective and more important than ever.  Making sure we proceed to have the best such defenses possible is hugely more important to national security than how many nuclear missiles Russia has.  START plus administration support for these  two items is a national security plus even if START itself is marginally a bad deal.

Second, executive power and presidential prestige matter.  To stop START, which is of marginal (if any) harm to our national security, would be a devastating blow to a weakened Obama in dealing with foreign nations.  The GOP should be willing to defeat the president domestically nearly everywhere his vision departs from its’, but internationally: only with extreme good reason.  Just as the GOP gave Clinton his victories on free trade and Balkan intervention, the GOP must aid this president in obtaining acceptable outcomes in Afghanistan and Iraq regardless of electoral gain.

Third, President Obama is coming our way.  He is keeping the jihadis in Guantanamo.  There will be no terror trial/circuses in Manhattan.  President Obama spoke out against China on human rights in regards to the Nobel Prize.  He has pulled back from his policy opposing construction by Jews in the capital of Israel.  He is sending drones to exterminate Taliban and jihadi leaders all over Afghanistan and even into Pakistan.  The debacle of the liberal national security policy has been plain to see and is being abandoned by its chief proponent.

Most deliciously, all of this is being done by the doves’ favorite president to virtually no protests or opposition.  Each policy is becoming the accepted bi-partisan manner of waging the terror war.  Step by bloody step, President Obama is disarming the Left of its most caustic arguments.  I am of the camp that believes Obama will not face a seriously contested primary (by seriously, I mean someone other than Dennis Kucinich).  When that occurs, future Republican presidents will easily and credibly be able to characterize noisy protests, vitriol and opposition to similar policies as partisan.  This will be devastating to the Left in the eyes of independents and the rest of America.

Before the fall of the Soviet Union, I and many other conservatives saw practically every SALT, START and other capital “S” treaty with the Soviets as a disaster.  Now, such irrelevant treaties may serve the purpose of demonstrating American goodwill while costing virtually nothing.  This is particularly true if conservatives can extract national security commitments from a dovish administration.

With the incoming Congress, Obama is unlikely to gain any more Left triumphs.  On Obamacare, stimulus measures, bailouts and the rest he can only expect holding actions.  His victories must come from bipartisan efforts or abroad.  There is very little room for liberal triumphs abroad.  His campaign statements about talking with North Korea and Iran have produced nothing and worse than nothing.  Iraq is becoming an American success story.  WikiLeaks revealed that Arab leaders want the U.S. to be stronger, not more accommodating, with Iran.  On every front, the liberal foreign worldview is being undermined -- if not exploded -- by a president who was its chief champion.  Just as Paris was worth a Mass for Henry the IV,  missile defense, nuclear modernization, Guantanamo, targeted drones, and a tougher line on China are worth START for today’s conservatives.

Categories: FF Spotlight News