Sam Nunn’s fingerprints on Obama’s nuclear policies
WASHINGTON — Presidents, ex-presidents and near-presidents tend to win the Nobel Prize for Peace, and Sam Nunn isn’t any of those. But because of his efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons, the former Georgia senator has had multiple nominations.
Nunn’s steady, determined advocacy is the sort of work that tends to get the attention of those Scandinavian judges. A moderate-to-conservative Democrat, he can hardly be considered a naïve peacenik. Yet, he has dedicated himself to the proposition, distant though it may be, of a world free of nuclear weapons.
Nunn, who left the Senate in 1997, has exerted considerable influence on the policies championed by President Obama. They met shortly after Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004, when he called Nunn and asked for a meeting. Though Nunn didn’t end up in the Obama cabinet, he has continued his role as a trusted, if informal, adviser.
When Obama held a high-level summit in April to try to focus heads of state on rounding up nuclear materials that might easily fall into the hands of terrorists, it sounded as though he had taken a page from the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the organization that Nunn heads. The non-profit group, founded by Nunn and Ted Turner in 2001, has, among other things, emphasized the dangers posed by nuclear weapons that might be smuggled into the United States.
“I have thought for many years that a nuclear explosion in the U.S. is much more likely to come from (terrorists) with no return address. Even back in the early ’90s, I thought so,” Nunn told me.
While small nukes figure prominently in Hollywood thrillers from “24” to “The Sum of All Fears,” no previous U.S. president had ever raised the issue to such notice before. But Nunn is modest about his contributions to Obama’s policies.
“We have helped, hopefully, to inspire him,” he told me. “We are very gratified to have a president who gets out front on this. That’s real leadership.”
Nunn believes the nuclear summit was a success.
“Obama made progress that is measurable. . . It is an unusual thing when a president gets out front and helps to prevent a catastrophe. . . .The U.S. is probably the greatest country in the world at reacting after a disaster (but) there isn’t a whole lot of (political) payoff to preventing something that people aren’t aware may happen,” he said.
Given his expertise on nuclear proliferation and the continuing esteem of his former colleagues, Nunn may be asked to testify before the Senate on the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which he supports. Hammered out earlier this year between President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the treaty calls for a reduction in the nuclear arsenals of both countries.
Hardliners who cannot give up the old U.S.-Soviet conflict have already blasted the treaty, as have Republican opportunists who want to damage Obama and those who want to cement their standing with a militaristic GOP base. Mitt Romney, who fits easily in the latter two categories, authored an essay in Tuesday’s Washington Post saying New START could be Obama’s “worst foreign policy mistake yet,” claiming that it “gives Russia a massive nuclear weapon advantage over the United States.”
While he expects intense opposition to New START, Nunn says he is nevertheless “cautiously optimistic” about its chances for eventual Senate ratification.
“It seems to me there are at least 10 to 15 Republicans who are taking a serious look at it. The Joint Chiefs are favorable. The head of missile defense efforts has testified that nothing in it would impede our missile defense work. Obama and Biden have taken a vigorous position on making sure our (nuclear) weapons are safe, secure and reliable . . .I think all of that adds up to cautious optimism.”
Without a New START treaty, the U.S. will have no mechanism for inspecting Russia’s nuclear arsenal. That, alone, should persuade some skeptics.
In any event, Nunn says, “we have ample numbers of nuclear weapons” and that will still be true if the treaty is ratified. If we give up some, we might more easily persuade other nations to do the same.
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68 comments Add your comment
Tommy Maddox
July 7th, 2010
11:21 am
I like Sam Nunn. Can we trade Obama for Sam?
Peadawg
July 7th, 2010
11:23 am
After Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, for what I still can’t figure out(he was in office for what, 2 weeks?), the prize has no value anymore.
Mrs. W.
July 7th, 2010
11:24 am
I always liked and respected Sam Nunn. Too bad I can’t say the Same for Obama who just continues to boggle the mind with his lack of transparency.
Aquagirl
July 7th, 2010
11:25 am
How can we threaten the russkies if we can only blow them up 6 times instead of 14?!?! That’s Republican thinking for ya. They know how to appeal to their wingnut base.
Peadawg
July 7th, 2010
11:25 am
I saw a t-shirt in Helen this past weekend that had Bush on it and said, “Miss me yet? How’s that hopey-changey thing working out for ya?”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
Granny Godzilla
July 7th, 2010
11:28 am
Glad Obama has Mr. Nunn’s wise counsel.
IMHO, it’s passe’ to have enough nukes to blow the entire world up more than 9 or 10 times. 2 or 3 times is soooo much more tasteful.
master Sergeant
July 7th, 2010
11:39 am
Here we go, more scare tactics !!!
Granny Godzilla
July 7th, 2010
11:39 am
Peadawg, my secret love, there’s plenty of funny tee shirts to chuckle at!
Peadawg
July 7th, 2010
11:40 am
You’re too old and saggy for me, Granny. I’m flattered, but hell no. Don’t forget to take your pills!!
Abrazos
July 7th, 2010
11:54 am
It’s common knowledge that you go to Helen, Georgia for the latest in societal trends. I saw a t-shirt in Helen last October that said, “Got Ammo?”. The yellow underarm sweat stains matched the guy’s tooth real nice.
I'm here from the government and I'm here to help
July 7th, 2010
11:57 am
ctucker is working the archives trying to find something to blog. Is the present day economy and jobless rate to much to handle?
Sick&Tired
July 7th, 2010
12:05 pm
The most memorable day of the Bush Presidency was the day the shoe was thrown. Now that was worth a big hearty laugh and I still laugh when I think about it. That guy did the world a favor. How’s that for a tee-shirt?
Granny Godzilla
July 7th, 2010
12:08 pm
Peadawg
I am most certainly too old for you, but thanks to my sturdy swedish peasant stock – nothing sags – yet!
Peadawg
July 7th, 2010
12:08 pm
I’ll agree Sick&Tired. That was classic. So was the “You Lie!” statement during Obama’s speech.
Granny Godzilla
July 7th, 2010
12:17 pm
Well, back to the topic at hand.
I see that “In a Washington Post op-ed, Mitt Romney makes false and misleading assertions to claim that the strategic missile reduction treaty with Russia “jeopardizes our missile defense system.” In fact, the head of the Missile Defense Agency testified that “the new START treaty actually reduces constraints on the development of the missile defense program.”
and
Romney: Treaty “explicitly forbids” the US from converting offensive sites to defensive. The treaty does include one limitation on missile defense systems. It prohibits the conversion of intercontinental ballistic missile launcher sites from offensive to defensive capacities. Citing this provision, Romney complains that the treaty “explicitly forbids the United States from converting intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos into missile defense sites.”
But military says it’s cheaper to build new missile defense sites then to convert ICBM sites
From Media Matters
Let the disinformation begin!
Scout
July 7th, 2010
12:17 pm
Cynthia:
A world without nuclear weapons means we would have already had WWIII, WWIV and maybe working on WWV.
Thank God for nukes ………….. it has kept EVIL at bay !!
Scout
July 7th, 2010
12:19 pm
Heard two things awhile ago:
1) In an answer to a ladies question as to why we weren’t deporting illegals, Senator McCain said “you can call one of our soldiers in Afghanistan and tell him his mother is being deported but I’m not.” What demagoguery ! If a U.S. citizen’s mother was going to jail for ten years for credit card fraud …….. he would get the call !
2) Our Attorney Private John Holder sees fit to go after the sovereign State of Arizona but gives the black panthers a pass. That one doesn’t surprise me.
Cynthia is Sexy!!
July 7th, 2010
12:20 pm
Sick&Tired
July 7th, 2010
12:05 pm
LOL…ya…the guy throwing the shoe was such a sorry shot or too drunk to even hit Bush who was only a few feet away. Just shows Bush is still quick on his feet.
Obama on the other hand would probably start crying and tell the shoe tosser to come “spank him bum bum.”
AHHHAHHAHAAHAAA!!!
Cynthia is Sexy!!
July 7th, 2010
12:23 pm
Obama is weak and even Michelle knows this. That video of Paul M singing Michelle and stupid Obumbler sitting there making goo goo eyes at her…she looks totaly embarassed and knows she has married a silly little boy, a girly-man, a weakling, a coward, a jerk.
Cynthia is Sexy!!
July 7th, 2010
12:25 pm
The best video, due out in 2012, will be the one where Obumbler is being whisked away from the whitehouse and sent off into exile on The Isle of Stupidity.
David S
July 7th, 2010
12:29 pm
While Nunn’s fingerprints may be on our nuclear policy, Israel’s are all over our foreign policy. That is the story that the media need to be focussed on. Frankly I don’t understand why they don’t just build an Israeli embassy on Capitol Hill. It would make the commute easier for the folks who run our Congress.
PearlJam
July 7th, 2010
12:29 pm
Cynthia is Sexy!! – Wrong, the shoe would never make it past the Tele-promter
Cynthia is Sexy!!
July 7th, 2010
12:31 pm
Yes….lettuce sing the praises of Father Obama…our illustrious and Grand Poobah. The Head Honcho who leads of further into economic ruin. The Big Cheese who is Jimmy Carters equal. The Leading Embarrassement of the free world.
“Father Obama
We praise your every BM
Father Obama
Our glorious leader we love you
Father Obama
THe sun rises on your shoulders
Father Obama
We chant songs and write poems about you…”
PearlJam
July 7th, 2010
12:32 pm
Is part of the policy to train Navy “Corps”-men to assist.
Scout
July 7th, 2010
12:34 pm
Cynthia:
You need to get right on this discrimination ! What if it were “corn row salons” ?
Headline (Washington Post): “Tanning salons feel burned by 10 percent ‘tan tax’ “
Joel
July 7th, 2010
12:36 pm
Now I see why you always copy and paste. I fell asleep 3 times while I was reading.
Joel
July 7th, 2010
12:38 pm
Granny, you know that we do not have an oil spill in the gulf, right?
Granny Godzilla
July 7th, 2010
12:48 pm
Joel
You do know that asking a question in order to elicit a specific response on a blog so you can then pull out your little “gotcha” is a time waster. Why not just post what you want to say?
joan
July 7th, 2010
12:57 pm
With Obama we will soon all be equal in our poverty, and he will be happy. The next shoe to drop will likely be Michelle emerging from the White House wearing her burka. Of course, that is after Obama has railroaded through all the appointments and disgusting legislation he can to assure the collapse of the country.
Scrappy
July 7th, 2010
1:02 pm
joan has taken GOP rhetoric and fear tactics to a whole new level of insanity.
Granny Godzilla
July 7th, 2010
1:04 pm
Scrappy
I thinks she’s related to Eeyore.
Kamchak
July 7th, 2010
1:05 pm
joan has taken GOP rhetoric and fear tactics to a whole new level of insanity.
Playing the only cards she’s got.
Aquagirl
July 7th, 2010
1:10 pm
Joel @ 12:38, sorry ’bout your epic fail.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
July 7th, 2010
1:13 pm
I think I just read a 707 word essay that worries about the risks that “a nuclear explosion in the U.S. is much more likely to come from (terrorists) with no return address” and proposes as a meritorious defense against same “a New START treaty, [so that] the U.S. will have [a] mechanism for inspecting Russia’s nuclear arsenal.” Leftist logic.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
July 7th, 2010
1:17 pm
I think we can cure the US healthcare crisis if only England will adopt Obamacare. I think we can cure air pollution if China outlaws drilling for oil in the Caribbean. I think we can lick unemployment if only the Latvians will embrace an Obama-like stimulus bill.
We need more non-sequiturs in our political arguments.
Granny Godzilla
July 7th, 2010
1:25 pm
Hey Rags! How are ya’!
That lefist logic seems to be supported by a number or rightists.
From Media Matters
National security experts support START. The Partnership for a Secure America, founded by Sen. Warren Rudman (R-NH) and Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-IN), issued a statement supporting New START’s ratification signed by 30 former public officials and former high-ranking national security and foreign policy experts, including George H.W. Bush White House chief of Staff Kenneth M. Duberstein, former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and former Reagan Secretary of State George Schultz. Below is the full list of the statement’s signers:
Madeleine Albright Secretary of State 1997-2001
Howard Baker US Senator (R-TN) 1967-85
Samuel Berger National Security Advisor 1997-2001
Linton Brooks Administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration 2002-07
Harold Brown Secretary of Defense 1977-81
Frank Carlucci Secretary of Defense 1987-89
Warren Christopher Secretary of State 1993-97
William Cohen Secretary of Defense 1997-2001
John C. Danforth US Senator (R-MO) 1977-95
Kenneth M. Duberstein White House Chief of Staff 1988-89
Chuck Hagel US Senator (R-NE) 1997-2009
Lee Hamilton US Congressman (D-IN) 1965-99; Co-Chair, PSA Advisory Board
Gary Hart US Senator (D-CO) 1975-87
Rita E. Hauser Chair, International Peace Institute
Carla Hills US Trade Representative 1989-93
Nancy Kassebaum-Baker US Senator (R-KS) 1978-97
Thomas Kean Governor (R-NJ) 1982-90; 9/11 Commission Chair
Richard Leone President, The Century Foundation
Donald McHenry US Ambassador to the UN 1979-81
Sam Nunn US Senator (D-GA) 1972-96
William Perry Secretary of Defense 1994-97
Thomas Pickering Under Secretary of State 1997-2000
Colin L. Powell Secretary of State 2001-05
Warren Rudman US Senator (R-NH) 1980-92; Co-Chair, PSA Advisory Board
Alan Simpson US Senator (R-WY) 1979-97
George Shultz Secretary of State 1982-89
Theodore Sorensen White House Special Counsel 1961-63
John Whitehead Deputy Secretary of State 1985-88
Timothy E. Wirth US Senator (D-CO) 1987-93
Frank Wisner Under Secretary of State 1992-93
Oh and add Kissinger and Scowcroft to the list.
Seems like bi-partisan logic to me.
Scout
July 7th, 2010
1:26 pm
Headline (Washington Post): “Tanning salons feel burned by 10 percent ‘tan tax’ “
Hey! If we could get a “Tanny Party” to unite with the “Tea Party” we could get something going here !
Ragnar Danneskjöld
July 7th, 2010
1:32 pm
Dear Granny, good afternoon, trust all is well in your world. I would respectfully correct your final line to read “Seems like bi-partisan cultism to me.” While I would be negligent to fail to observe that republican is not the same as conservative, my point is both higher and simpler. Not a word of logic in the essay nor in your post, merely cultist endorsements, the trademark of leftism. Logic requires an argument, a implies b, and leads to c. Nothing of the kind to be found in any leftist argument on START, only “John Smith says so and so, therefore I obey.”
Ragnar Danneskjöld
July 7th, 2010
1:34 pm
Dear Granny, after reading over your list, I find only one inspiring name, George Schultz. I would like to hear his argument.
Granny Godzilla
July 7th, 2010
1:52 pm
Cultist?
Nice twist.
Kamchak
July 7th, 2010
2:00 pm
Granny likes a good twist and shout from time to time dont you? Bring back memories of the sock hop?
Ragnar Danneskjöld
July 7th, 2010
2:00 pm
Dear Granny, we find cultism throughout leftist ideology, “unchallengeable truths:” Global warming, population bombs, suffocating and deadly pollutants everywhere we turn, all wars are quagmires and unwinnable, government regulation is necessary, taxes must increase to meet government spending.
Conservatives ignore such pap, which never has a shred of logic behind it.
Joel
July 7th, 2010
2:02 pm
Granny, I’ll deem whether its a waste of my time or not.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
July 7th, 2010
2:02 pm
And, dear Granny, I did not even mention the personality cults of our leftist friends.
Kamchak
July 7th, 2010
2:04 pm
I see that mystery meat name-jacking leg-humper is here.
Granny Godzilla
July 7th, 2010
2:15 pm
Joel
Ok fine by me.
Carter
July 7th, 2010
2:21 pm
The following is the transcript from the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida:
“‘We don’t accept the statement [of Hamas]: a [Palestinian] state of resistance and refusal. What we hear from everyone is that the basis is negotiations, at a time that the entire world agrees about this, despite the absence of other options, we either have negotiations or no negotiations, what has put Israel in the corner.
We are unable to confront Israel militarily, and this point was discussed at the Arab League Summit in March in Sirt (Libya). There I turned to the Arab States and I said: ‘If you want war, and if all of you will fight Israel, we are in favor. But the Palestinians will not fight alone because they don’t have the ability to do it.’ He [Abbas] said: ‘The West Bank was completely destroyed and we will not agree that it will be destroyed again,’ in addition to ‘the inability to confront Israel militarily.’”
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), July 6, 2010]
jconservative
July 7th, 2010
2:27 pm
A lesson in history and foreign policy:
From his website:
“On March 26, 2010, Senator Dick Lugar released the following statement on the announcement of the New START Treaty between the United States and Russia:
“I commend the U.S. and Russian delegations for months of dedicated effort. I look forward to the President’s submission of the new treaty, its protocols, annexes and all associated documents to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification. I also look forward to working with Chairman Kerry to begin scheduling hearings and briefings for the Foreign Relations Committee so that we can work quickly to achieve ratification of the new treaty.”
Several of you folks who have commented on this matter are under the assumption that this treaty is an Obama treaty. In fact this treaty is the result of the non-stop efforts of the following US presidents: Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama. This treaty has been an on going negotiation since it was first proposed by President Reagan in the summer of 1982. You may expect the negotiations will continue for many years into the future. The first START treaty was signed in 1991 and expired in 2009. This is a renewal with changes.
I would expect the Senate to approve the treaty with 70 to 75 votes.
One commenter, Ragnar Danneskjöld, indicated his support for George Schultz; great, he was the Secretary of State who got the START negotiations off to such a successful start. Without Schultz’s efforts neither START 1 nor this new treaty (START II) would have been successfully negotiated.
joan
July 7th, 2010
2:29 pm
All of you who believe I am crying wolf, have all your money invested in the market, work in private industry and have advanced degrees in logic I am sure. It’s pretty bad right now, but Greece can, and is likely to, happen here. That is, if the American public is as ignorant as the Democrats think they are. Unfortunately, given the state of the schools, and parental discipline these days, I am afraid the excrement will hit the oscillating device in a big way shortly. Be sure to have an umbrella, and remember I told you so.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
July 7th, 2010
2:57 pm
Dear jconservative @ 2:27, you give me too much credit. While it may be true that the legacy of George Schultz would completely collapse without my support, the real issue is, “why should Congress consider the renewal-with-changes START treaty?” (And isn’t that redundant, doesn’t the final T stand for “treaty?”) As yet I hear no argument for any benefit arising from the Treaty.