Posted on 05/18/2002 1:10:31 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
This week, while most of us were breaking out the champagne, old Cold Warriors – both here and in Moscow – were crying in their beer.
Why?
First: Russia just became an ex-officio member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Henceforth, Russia can actively participate in – but not veto – NATO programs, such as fighting the war against terrorism and preventing nuke proliferation.
Rats! NATO was originally established in 1949 to push the Red Army back to Moscow. Old Cold Warriors – both here and in Moscow – still consider that to be NATO's principal purpose.
Second: Presidents Bush and Putin announced they would sign a treaty next week to drastically reduce the number of deployed "strategic" nukes. The three-page treaty is deliberately vague, especially about how the reductions are to be achieved and verified.
Double Rats! Old Cold Warriors – both here and in Moscow – view unverifiable arms reduction agreements to be treasonous.
Why, then, were we breaking out the champagne?
Well, U.S. support of Russia's ex-officio membership in NATO is just one more confirmation of the seriousness of last fall's "Joint Statement by President George W. Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin on a New Relationship Between the United States and Russia."
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and MinAtom's Alexander Rumyantsev subsequently met and agreed to closely cooperate – internationally, not just in Russia – to prevent the proliferation of nukes, to improve the physical protection, control and accounting of weapons-useable materials and to prevent illegal trafficking of radioactive materials.
Secretary Abraham then went to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. agency responsible for "policing" the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The secretary briefed the IAEA's board of directors on what he and Rumyantsev had agreed to do – cooperatively and internationally. He then endorsed – and promised to provide funding for – the efforts of IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei to prevent and combat nuke terrorism.
"The IAEA and its members are a key part of the coalition against terrorism. The work the Agency does to deny nuclear material and radioactive sources to terrorist and state sponsors of terrorism is an integral part of our effort to stem the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."
In particular, Abraham praised the IAEA International Physical Protection Advisory Service, which could be made available even to non-NPT signatories – such as India and Pakistan – to assess their physical security requirements and to better identify, inventory and control radioactive sources and materials.
Now, what has any of this got to do with the upcoming Bush-Putin treaty on strategic nuke deployments?
When the Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991, it possessed more than 10,000 strategic nuclear weapons – for use against us – and more than 15,000 tactical nuclear weapons – for use against our NATO allies.
Russia immediately sought U.S. technical and financial help to dismantle the 20,000 or so Soviet nukes it inherited that were excess to Russia's needs, and to peacefully dispose of the fissile materials recovered. Congress recognized that it was in our national interest to provide such assistance to Russia and so authorized it in a series of "Nunn-Lugar" acts.
But, when Clinton was president, rather than assisting the Russians with peaceful disposal of their excess nuke-useable materials, he basically used congressional authority and funding as a "carrot" to get the Russians to do things they didn't want to do.
For example, Clinton paid them many millions of dollars to convert a factory making guidance units for ballistic missiles into a factory making soda-pop bottling equipment. That is not exactly what Sens. Nunn and Lugar had in mind. On the other hand, Clinton essentially refused to assist – as Nunn-Lugar had intended – the Russians make nuclear reactor fuel out of the many tons of plutonium recovered from about 20,000 dismantled Soviet nukes.
Now, Clinton has gone bye-bye, and we have – instead – the Bush-Putin Joint Statement, Russian ex-officio membership in NATO, joint U.S.-Russian support for an IAEA anti-terrorism role and the upcoming strategic arms agreement.
Putin wanted – but didn't get – a commitment by Bush in that agreement to dismantle those U.S. nukes and dispose of the plutonium recovered. But it seems likely that the Bush-Cheney administration will now – at a minimum – provide the financial and technical assistance to Russia that was authorized by Congress. Furthermore, there are reports that the Energy Department has been studying the U.S. plutonium disposal problem and have concluded that the Russians have had the right idea all along. Don't bury it in Nevada. Make reactor fuel. Generate electricity.
So, here's looking at you, kid.
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