Suggesting that it is too late to negotiate with Russia over alleged violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, argued yesterday that the U.S. should expand its missile defense capabilities and “reinstate” funding to modernize the nation’s nuclear arsenal and weapons complex in response to Russia’s intermediate-range nuclear weapons development. He also said the U.S. should examine developing new nuclear systems to counter the ground-launched cruise missile the U.S. has accused Russia of testing outside the boundaries of the INF Treaty as well as assess the survivability of U.S. nuclear forces against Russia’s new capabilities. “It seems that there is a fundamental difference in the way the U.S. and Russia view nuclear strategy, the role of nuclear weapons, and arms control,” Inhofe wrote in a Sept. 8 Foreign Policy op-ed.
Russia used arms control to chip away at U.S. strategic forces and pursue other nuclear pathways while the U.S. has tried unsuccessfully to lead the way on disarmament and nonproliferation issues, Inhofe wrote. “This is the only way to explain why the Russians were negotiating New START even while they were developing a new INF-Treaty prohibited missile,” Inhofe wrote. “What’s harder to explain is why we let them get away with it.”
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