Expect to see strong Republican opposition to arms control.
With a congressional battle looming, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday defended the administration's broad arms-control agenda and said that reducing U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles would be a critical first step in preventing the spread of the deadly weapons to other countries.
Clinton took aim at President Obama's critics in what was billed as a major address on nuclear nonproliferation at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Speaking to a room packed with experts on nuclear issues, she urged support for a new U.S.-Russian arms-control treaty and a global pact banning nuclear testing.
"Clinging to nuclear weapons in excess of our security needs does not make the United States safer," Clinton said. "And the nuclear status quo is neither desirable nor sustainable. It gives other countries the motivation -- or the excuse -- to pursue their own nuclear options."
Obama has won international recognition, including a Nobel Peace Prize, for his plans to strengthen the world's fragile nuclear nonproliferation system and move toward an eventual "world without nuclear weapons." But in coming months, his strategy will be put to the test in the Senate. Failure to win ratification of the U.S.-Russian pact and the test-ban treaty would weaken Obama's ability to persuade other countries to crack down on the spread of nuclear weapons... [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Washington Post>
As clear as it is that arms control makes us all safer, ratifying the treaty would be an accomplishment for Obama. That alone is sufficient to garner intense opposition from the Republicans. In this case, however, they actually do have a plan of their own.
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