US, Russia Close to Nuclear Weapons Deal

It is almost like the good old Cold War days. The US and USSR Russia have settled the major issues in their nuclear arms reduction talks. This puts the two nations "on the brink" of a nuke treaty. Despite Al Qaeda, North Korea, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq-Nam, the sheer size of the American and Russian arsenals remains the biggest threat to the continued existence of the human race. Reducing them to "acceptable" levels remains an important diplomatic goal for all concerned.

Secretary of State Clinton and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met in Moscow earlier today. After that meeting, Ms. Clinton told the press, "Our negotiating teams have reported that they have resolved all of the major issues and there are some technical issues that remain. But we are on the brink of seeing a new agreement between the United States and Russia." This is the sort of brinkmanship the world needs.

The big sticking point in all of this is the American missile defense system. It has been feared in Moscow since Ronald Reagan first proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars Defense"). Never mind that the Americans cannot make it work, and the few tests the Pentagon has claimed as "successful" required the target to carry a homing beacon. The truth is one cannot knock down enough missiles with missiles, lasers and magic pixie dust to matter. An anti-missile missile is rather like an anti-arrow arrow. The current draft treaty language apparently links offensive and defensive weaponry, and some kind of legally binding provision is in the proposed deal, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The arsenals of both sides remain ridiculously huge. Under the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty [SORT], both sides' strategic warhead count is capped at 2,200. Russia exceeds this with 2,787 but is lowering that number to the limit. The US has 2,126 strategic warheads. However, this limit does not consider tactical or reserve warheads. The Arms Control Association, which is the source of all these numbers, says Russia has "approximately 2,000 operational tactical warheads, and approximately 8,000 stockpiled strategic and tactical warheads." The US has "approximately 500 operational tactical weapons, and approximately 6,700 reserve strategic and tactical warheads." So, the true count is: Russia approximately 12,787 and USA roughly 9,326. And that is why arms reduction is so important.

As Churchill noted after a certain level, more bombs only make the rubble bounce. The combined total of roughly 22,000 nuclear bombs is surely excessive. While the world worries about Iran getting a bomb, or Pakistan's security madmen handing one over to Al Qaeda, the real threat is the control and security of so many weapons of mass destruction. The military of both nations swear blind that there are no problems and that the warheads are perfectly secure. And the Titanic was unsinkable. One would rather see 20,000 of those bombs go away this afternoon and discussions on the other 2,000 continue.

© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

Kensington Review Home