It's Time to Ratify New START

For almost 20 years, the U.S. has had inspectors on the ground in Russia to conduct inspections and surveillance of the Russian nuclear arsenal. Now we don't, says Lt. General Norman Seip, former Commander of 12th Air Force who served as Chief of Standardization and Evaluation at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. Since December of last year, the treaty that enabled us to keep tabs on Russian warheads expired, and our inspectors came home.

The Senate will have a lot on its plate when it resumes action after the election, but their top priority should be to follow the advice of U.S. military leadership and ratify the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which will put U.S. inspectors back on the ground in Russia, says Seip in an article for the South Carolina Forum.

As a former Air Force Commander, I managed over 30,000 active duty personnel and had to make decisive decisions to protect our nation's security, he says. This treaty should be ratified for a simple reason -- it makes America safe.

In addition to providing a state-of-the-art verification regime that builds on two decades of experience monitoring Russian weapons, New START makes modest reductions to both Russian and U.S. arsenals and provides vital transparency and stability in the relationship between the countries whose arsenals account for 95 percent of the world's nuclear weapons, Seip explains.

It is because the treaty makes America safer that it has the overwhelming support of U.S. military leadership and national security experts from both political parties, he adds. Over the course of six months of hearings, senators heard testimony in support of the treaty from the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of the Missile Defense Agency charged with overseeing U.S. missiles and missile defense. In addition, seven former STRATCOM commanders wrote to Senators, urging them to promptly ratify the treaty.

After months of vetting the treaty in more than 20 hearings with hundreds of questions answered, all substantive issues have been addressed, Seip states. When the Senate reconvenes it will have been almost an entire year since U.S. on-site inspections of Russian nuclear weapons and infrastructure were suspended. Our uncertainty grows and our security shrinks as each additional day passes.

Now it's time for the Senate to act, Seip concludes. A total of 67 votes are necessary to pass the treaty making the votes of all Senators critical for ratification. This treaty is a straightforward, nonpartisan issue of security with overwhelming support from the nation's military. Senators -- it's time to ratify New START.

NEW START

The Senate will have a lot on its plate when it resumes, but their top priority should be to follow the advice of U.S. military leadership and ratify the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which will put U.S. inspectors back on the ground in Russia.

In addition to providing a state-of-the-art verification regime that builds on two decades of experience monitoring Russian weapons, the treaty makes modest reductions to both Russian and U.S. arsenals and provides vital transparency and stability in the relationship between the countries whose arsenals account for 95 percent of the world's nuclear weapons.

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is a straightforward, nonpartisan issue of security with overwhelming support from the nation's military. After almost a full year without nuclear inspections, it's finally time to ratify New START.

About Norman Seip
Lt. General Seip (ret.) is former Commander of 12th Air Force. He served as Chief of Standardization and Evaluation at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina.