There’s been ample time to deliberate new START treaty

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is pushing the Senate to move forward on several major pending matters, and in some cases he may be overreaching, but not so in the case of the new START Treaty.

The first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was negotiated by President Ronald Reagan and ratified under President George H. W. Bush, so the concept is tried and true.

This new treaty was signed by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April, subject to ratification. This is not one of those legislative matters that senators, representatives and talk show hosts like to characterize as too long for anyone to read. The treaty is less than 20 pages long and the side notes are about 160 pages.

Any senator who hasn’t taken the time to read it or hasn’t had a trusted staff specialist vet it for him has only himself to blame.

And every member of the Senate should be certain that their colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee read the treaty, studied the analysis and considered its pros and cons. And those 18 senators voted 14-4 for ratification.

The new START calls for the U.S. and Russia to have no more than 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads on 700 strategic bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched missiles at the end of seven years. That’s a 30 percent reduction from what would be allowed at the end of 2012 under a 2002 treaty that’s due to expire at the end of 2012.

But it’s still enough nuclear firepower for either the United States or Russia to blow any number of enemies to kingdom come. And it’s more than enough arsenal to act as a deterrent to any enemy in time of war or threat of war.

Inspections would resume

More important, the treaty would reinstitute an inspection regime that expired more than a year ago. Without inspections it is impossible to follow the legendary advice of President Reagan: Trust but verify.

Ratification of the START treaty is not only an important key to continued diplomatic relations between Russia and the U.S., it sends a message to the rest of the world that these two nuclear super powers are working to reduce their arsenals. That’s important at a time when efforts continue to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons in other countries.

Ironically, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Sen. Jim DeMint, R. S.C., have suggested it is unseemly for Reid to be pushing for ratification of the treaty before the Senate leaves for its Christmas recess.

It’s far from unseemly; it’s in perfect keeping with the message of the season, given its strong ties to the phrase peace on Earth.

The omnibus budget bill may have to wait for the next Congress, and any threatened shutdown of the government can be averted by approving a continue budget resolution.

But the Senate should listen to its own foreign relations experts and ratify the treaty without further delay.