A late look at a troubling treaty

It turns out the Russians got a great deal on the new Strategic Arms Reduc tion Treaty, which President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed in Prague last month.

The bad news is late in leaking out because seemingly no one outside the government -- and likely few, if any, inside Congress -- got a look at the arms-control pact before the two leaders inked it.

But the treaty's problems should be front and center as early as next week, when the Senate starts hearings on it. (Like any US treaty, the new START requires the approval of 67 senators for ratification.)

Obama says he wants the Senate to pass the treaty before the November elections -- most likely for fear that a shift in political power to the right might scuttle an already leaky arms-control proposal.

“Western thinking has become conservative:
the world situation should stay as it is at any cost;
there should be no changes. ....
The communist regime in the East could stand and grow due to the enthusiastic support
from an enormous number of Western intellectuals who felt a kinship and refused to see
communism's crimes. And when they no longer could do so, they tried to justify them. In
our Eastern countries, communism has suffered a complete ideological defeat; it is zero
and less than zero. But Western intellectuals still look at it with interest and with
empathy, and this is precisely what makes it so immensely difficult for the West to
withstand the East.”
[Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn at the Commencement, 8 June 1978, Harvard University]

"Obama Obama shifts FBI from Counter Terrorism to Fraud"

"Victims of Cole bombing upset
"A top officer slammed Obama's decision to seek the withdrawal of charges against the 2000 suspected U.S.S. Cole ship bomber."

"Impeach Obama Says Sister of Cole Sailor Killed in Terror Attacks
"The sister of Seaman James McDaniels, a sailor killed in the terror attack on the U.S.S. Cole wants President Barack Hussein Obama impeached
over his decision to withdraw charges against the al Qaeda mastermind of the attack."

"Mother of USS Cole Sailor Declines Obama-meet, Says "I Voted for the Wrong Person"
"After Obama dropped the charges against the suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole,
he asked the families of the victims in that tragedy to meet with him.
One mother refused, and now says,"I voted for the wrong person."

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.