Robert Monroe: Senate Should Block START
Robert Monroe, a retired vice admiral in the U.S. Navy and former director of the Defense Nuclear Agency, wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on why the U.S. Senate should block START ratification.
“It is the first major step in the implementation of Mr. Obama’s broader nuclear strategy. This strategy would gravely weaken American national security.
“The Obama administration’s nuclear policy is set out in the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which was released in April, two days before the signing of New Start. The NPR is joined at the hip with New Start, and together they take this country down a dangerous path. For 65 years, the very existence of our nation has depended upon a strong nuclear deterrent. The new NPR wipes out this proven policy, substituting one of weakness in its place.
“Mr. Obama’s NPR treats nuclear weapons as an evil to be eliminated, rather than as the ultimate foundation of America’s security in a dangerous world. The review opens with Mr. Obama’s pledge to ‘seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons’ and ‘to take concrete steps toward that goal, including by reducing the number of nuclear weapons and their role in national security policy.’”
In an ideal world, there’d be no need for nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, we live in this world. Nuclear weapons provide the necessary leverage we need to limit global conflicts. As Monroe points out, such a weapon ended World War II. We must maintain an up-to-date arsenal of nuclear weapons to “encourage” countries like Iran and North Korea to think twice about unleashing their enmity on the world. But our president doesn’t see it that way.
“Mr. Obama’s NPR amounts to a road map for achieving a position of strategic inferiority. As other states improve their nuclear arsenals, we will be carrying out unilateral nuclear disarmament…How have we come to this?”
Tags: Robert Monroe, START