Charles Krauthammer on U.S.-Russian Relations
Writing in National Review Online, columnist Charles Krauthammer has a theory about what has strained relations between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union: “Vladimir Putin’s unapologetic and relentless drive to restore Moscow’s hegemony over the sovereign states that used to be Soviet satrapies.”
Krauthammer says the forthcoming treaty between the two is useless as far as our country is concerned, and may be damaging.
“Useless because the level of offensive nuclear weaponry, the subject of the U.S.-Russia ‘Joint Understanding,’ is an irrelevance,” Krauthammer writes. “We could today terminate all such negotiations, invite the Russians to build as many warheads as they want, and profitably watch them spend themselves into penury, as did their Soviet predecessors, stockpiling weapons that do nothing more than, as Churchill put it, make the rubble bounce.”
Keith B. Payne, a member of the Perry-Schlesinger Commission, made a similar observation last week. Russia’s deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched missiles, and strategic bombers are old. In negotiating to reduce these weapons, Russia has given up nothing.
Russia has convinced our president that renewing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and reducing our weapons will deter other nations from stockpiling. “That a man of Obama’s intelligence can believe such nonsense is beyond comprehension.”
Krauthammer notes that Obama is keen on diplomatic success, which helped Russia link offensive nuclear weapons with defense ones. As we are more capable of dealing with intercontinental ballistic missile attacks than Russia, Russia’s interested in stopping our development in its tracks. Previous presidents have refused to give up our country’s advantage in this area. Obama not only wants to comply with Russia for the sake of diplomacy, he seems to be capitulating on all fronts, including funding missile defense and moving forward with shields in Central Europe.
“Obama doesn’t even seem to understand the ramifications of this concession. Poland and the Czech Republic thought they were regaining their independence when they joined NATO under the protection of the United States. They now see that the shield negotiated with us and subsequently ratified by all of NATO is in limbo.”
Read the full article here.
Tags: Barack Obama, Charles Krauthammer, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty