Hunters Rangers BFDH!
Posted on 07/08/2009 11:21:00 AM PDT by pissant
By Duncan Hunter, U.S. Rep. (ret.) Chairman, Armed Services Committee, 2002-2006
At the height of the Cold War the United States maintained more than 32,000 nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union deployed more than 45,000 such weapons. Ronald Reagan, having rebuilt U.S. military strength during the l980s, initiated, with Mikhail Gorbachev, a reduction regimen which continued through the break-up of the Soviet Empire. Since the Reagan breakthrough, the strategic armories of the U.S. and Russia have fallen to a few more than 2,000 nuclear weapons apiece.
Now, five months before the expiration of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (which was signed in l97l) President Obama has agreed with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to further cut the deployed nuclear warhead levels to no more than 1,675 for each country.
During the same meeting President Obama was reported to have told Medvedev that his administration was “still completing review of the missile-defense options in Europe.” This statement opened the door for the possibility that the U.S. will stop its program to place missile interceptors and radars in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Halting the American plans for such a deployment has been a key Russian objective.
President Obama’s agreement to reduce nuclear weapon inventories further and his weakening on missile defense represents the substitution of hope for a sound policy.
Weapons reductions have been negotiated in the past for a compelling reason: to bring about change in the behavior of the Soviet Union and thereby the reduction of the danger of nuclear war. Today, however, the effect on other nations which intend to develop, or are developing nuclear weapons must be considered.
North Korea now has a small number of nuclear weapons and continues to develop the missile capability that will, one day, allow them to reach the U.S. with a strategic weapon.
What effect on the less-than -stable North Korean leadership will President Obama’s agreement to reduce America’s nukes have? According to President Obama, this display of “leadership” will marshal international opposition to the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran.
If this is true than we could expect to see, in the next several months, the free world really cranking up the pressure on these two nations. Of course it won’t happen for two reasons.
First, our allies follow their own immediate security and economic interests and long ago relegated to Uncle Sam the tough ones like these two problem countries. Second, none of our allies are “holding back” from pressuring the Iranians and North Koreans to stop their nuke programs. In reality, our allies have little leverage with either country and what little clout they are inclined to use they have already called up.
In fact, if Mr. Obama really wanted to motivate another nation to pressure Iran he could have started with Russian President Medvedev, whose contractors are building the nuclear reactor currently under construction in Iran.
China, meanwhile, uninhibited by the agreement and with newly acquired economic muscle from the transfer of the American industrial base to her shores, moves ahead with the fielding of its new road-mobile ICBM and advanced capability in submarines, satellites, aircraft and electronic warfare.
The recent report of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States warns that “China is today of rising importance in the U.S. Strategic landscape.” According to the commission, China has a stockpile of around 400 nuclear weapons. It is a sure bet that Mr. Obama’s agreement to reduce American strategic weapons will have no effect on China’s ongoing program to deploy such weapons. Furthermore, China is clearly the world’s next military superpower.
It is entirely appropriate for President Obama to embark on a “Get to know you” world tour. It is however, a disservice to our security to trade a large portion of our strategic deterrent for hope.
Good to see Hunter writing.
Hunter needs more visibility—he should do more policy papers like this and get them published.
He plans to do a whole series of them.
Hunters Rangers BFDH!
But we get to sell hamburger to Putin. Now THAT"S a DEAL!
“Good to see Hunter writing.”
I’d like to see more from Mr. Hunter on a regular basis.
I’m working on that. We will need your able bodied assistance!
Duncan Hunter is the only GOP politician who discusses specifics with common sense, and he has a voting record to prove it. He’s also more loyal to the USA than any of the other politicians.
The substance over style man in the Republican Party. With the tendency of the conservative glamour figures to self-destruct, you’d think that such a solid character would look that much better to voters wanting a true conservative.
And he is a darn good speaker. No stumbling and bumbling around. No nonsensical sentences. No fluff. And he OWNS any lib interviewer who tries to trap or frustrate him.
That is my hope!!
Thanks for the PING, Calpernia! The gang’s all here! I’m ready to go to work! How about you all? :) I think Rep. Hunter should run for the Senate in 2010, and write a best seller in his spare time to get back into the public eye. Raster, did you keep all those great videos of him? What do you think? pissant, can you find out if he’s amenable to a run. He would need to get a darned good campaign manager this time.
No. Senate would be a waste of his wisdom, IMO.
It’s good to hear from Rep. Duncan L. Hunter! As always, he hits his subject squarely in center target. In view of what has occurred since Barrack Obsma’s inauguration, perhaps the American people are now ready to sit up and pay attention to what a mature conservative with a full quiver of experience, and a real heart for his country has to say.
Perhaps you are right. After what has been going on in the country, the American people should be ready to listen to this man.
Thanks for the ping! A voice of reason in a world of nonsense! AHHHHH!
I can think of no one with better foreign policy smarts.
CHAIRMAN DUNCAN HUNTER AND ‘THOSE WHO SERVE’:
KEEPERS OF THE FLAME 2006
Rep. Duncan Hunter accepting the 2006 Keeper of the Flame Award.[snip]
(Washington, D.C.): On September 20, 2006, the Center for Security Policy paid tribute to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter and Those Who Serve – the men and women who render invaluable service to the Nation in the War on Terror.
Congressman Hunter’s address to the nearly 400 attendees at this elegant black-tie dinner held at Washington’s landmark Union Station was preceded by a welcome from Dinner Chairman Jim Pitts, Corporate Vice President of the Northrup Grumman Corporation, and remarks by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The Keeper of the Flame Awards were presented to Rep. Hunter and five outstanding representatives of Those Who Serve in the U.S. armed forces
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=duncan+hunter+
Those comments sound like I wrote them. LOL
What do you know, I agree with him 100%.
“Those comments sound like I wrote them. LOL
What do you know, I agree with him 100%.”
That’s because they are logical, constitutional, and true instead of based on PC and emotion!
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