Vice Admiral: Obama was outmaneuvered by Russians on START U.S. Naval Institute - December 23, 2010
President Barack Obama was outmaneuvered by the Russians and should have abandoned the New START negotiations instead of seeking a political victory, says former nuclear plans monitor Vice Admiral Jerry Miller, USN (Ret).
“The Obama administration is continuing a dated policy in which we cannot even unilaterally reduce our own inventory of weapons and delivery systems without being on parity with the Russians,” Miller told the U.S. Naval Institute in Annapolis, Md. “We could give up plenty of deployed delivery systems and not adversely affect our national security one bit, but New START prohibits such action - so we are now stuck with some outmoded and useless elements in our nuke force.”
After meeting resistance from several Republicans, the U.S. Senate ratified the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia by a vote of 71-26 on Wednesday.
“The Soviets/Russians were done in by Reagan and our missile defense program because they cannot afford to build such a system,” said Miller. “They instead try to counter our program with rhetoric at the bargaining table. And they won by outmaneuvering Obama. START plays right into their hands.”
Former President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) is often credited with bankrupting the U.S.S.R. because the Soviets were unable to keep pace with the technology being developed by the United States.
“We have always been superior in quality of our nuclear force, so we did not have to negotiate with a party we do not trust,” said Miller. “If Obama wanted to save some money and improve national defense, he should have gotten out of the nuke negations and acted unilaterally. START is simply a political victory for Obama.”
Miller, who helped prepare the National Strategic Target List and Single Integrated Operational Plan for waging nuclear war and later participated in arms control meetings with the Soviet government, expressed concern that START could leave the United States vulnerable to other emerging threats.
“The treaty prohibits the conversion of an existing ballistic missile system into a missile defense system,” said Miller. “We might want to do that with a Trident or an ICBM sometime in the future, particularly if the Chinese alleged threat materializes.”
Miller’s book “Stockpile: The Story Behind 10,000 Strategic Nuclear Weapons” details the buildup of nuclear arms and the policies to keep the stockpile under control.
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Thunderstorm Patriot • Actually, Obama was not outmaneuvered by the Russians at all. That would require that Obama actually cares that America got a fair deal. But Obama has proven time and time again that he is more concerned with the image of what he accomplishes than having details that actually work. The man is shallow and goal oriented. As long as he reaches his goals he does not seem to sweat how much of a mess he makes for the future.
• ABU HUSSAIN
Is everybody STUPID? Or ...just lazy? "Obama was outmaneuvered"? How does this guy figure that? He must think that it was Hussain's objective, to get the best deal he could, for US? "The Treaty prohibits the conversion of existing Ballistic Missile Systems in to a Missile Defense System."
What's your point? Little Barry Soetoro doesn't WANT us to have a Missile Defense. He's a DEMOCRAT. He's a LIBERAL. He's a MARXIST.
Has ANYONE read his books? Does ANYONE know ANYTHING about his life?
We're talking about a guy who thinks that the Good Guys LOST the Cold War. A guy who's Father was a Muslim Marxist. His Mother was an Atheist Communist. His Grandparents were Communists.
His 1st Mentor - Frank Marshall Davis - was a Communist. He sat in the pews of his next Mentor - Jeremiah Wright - listening to his White-Hating, Jew-hating, America-Hating, diatribes for 20 YEARS.
He began his political career in the Living Room of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn.. Two Domestic Terrorists. who KILLED Police Officers. BLEW UP Recruiting Stations. And BOMBED the Pentagon.
I'm trying to figure out why you think that this AMERICA-HATING MUSLIM MARXIST was snookered? I guarantee ya, that this Treaty is EXACTLY what Barack Hussein Obama/Barry Soetoro/Abu Hussain wanted.
Try doing a little RESEARCH next time, Admiral.//
****It is perhaps a good time to review the Constitutional requirement that the President be a “natural-born” American citizen. This has often been challenged and an issue has been made of the LEGALISM of whether President Obama is, in fact, a natural-born citizen (i.e. whether he was in fact born in Hawaii or whether he gave up his American citizenship at some point.) This is not the place to argue the legal, factual issues but only to address the “why” of the requirement. It might be the case that the President fulfills the LETTER of the requirement but not the SPIRIT of it.****
“…Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has proposed to amend the Constitution to allow naturalized Americans to become President. If his amendment were adopted any person who had been a United States citizen for at least twenty years would be eligible to hold the Presidency. This is not a new idea. However, Senator Hatch's proposed amendment places emphasis on contemporary political leaders who otherwise never would be eligible to become President.
Perhaps no better person could refute the proposed Hatch Amendment than the late Balint Vazsyoni, Director of the Center for the American Founding. I had the honor of knowing this gentleman, a concert pianist who came to our country from his native Hungary while it was under Communist rule. More than most, Vazsyoni appreciated the wisdom that was displayed by the Founding Fathers in framing the Constitution and our country's unique heritage of offering freedom and liberty to all people. Vazsyoni witnessed for himself and knew of the damage done to countries whose guiding principles were set -- often arbitrarily -- by despotism and the ideologies of fascism and Communism.
A hearing by the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution was held on July 24, 2000 to review amending the Constitution to allow foreign-born citizens to become President. Vazsyoni both testified in person before the Subcommittee and submitted prepared remarks.
Vasyoni noted that the Founding Fathers created three branches of government and placed no stricture requiring citizenship to become a member of the Legislative or Judicial Branch. However, power is centralized in one person in the Executive Branch. Vazsyoni insisted that he did not view it to be an "excessive requirement" to have a native-born American to hold that one office. America presents immigrants with a great deal of leadership opportunities.
In his prepared remarks, Vazsyoni stated: "It is well known that the Founding Fathers were mindful in the extreme of foreign influences, and the dangers therein to the Republic. While experience has shown that a native-born Chief Executive is not necessarily immune to foreign influence, the odds are certainly more favorable if the President is an American plain and simple, who has never been, and is not at the time of taking office, anything else…."
****The thrust of Vazyoni’s insights is that the Founders wanted the President to have no question about his having only American values and allegiances. It was naturally assumed in the more-circumscribed world of 1787 that people didn’t travel as much as they do today let alone be subject to foreign influences before they reached adulthood.
Consider the second set of comments and note additionally that the President spent formative years in a foreign country ( and not, as Senator McCain was, still thoroughly under American influences, perhaps HYPER-American influences of military bases), had a natural father who was Kenyan and an influential step-father who was Indonesian. Indeed, although abandoned by his natural father early in life, Obama’s own books reflect the great influence this father had on him ( e.g. Dreams FROM My Father ). Hawaii is not mainstream America as EVEN CALIFORNIA would have been. It’s no wonder Obama seems to have no appreciation of American exceptionalism and on almost every occasion where the matter appears, seems to prefer being a “citizen of the world.” George Soros is a naturalized American citizen but there is little doubt that he shares this attitude. The point is that one can be a “natural-born” American citizen according to the letter of the law and still be as loyal as George Soros or the natural-born Jeremiah Wright or Bill Ayers.****