STARTing Now – Hopes for a New Congress

The thoroughly repudiated, lame duck Congress, holding but a 13% approval rating in the polls, took up two big pieces of legislation that were better left to the incoming class – not because the results would necessarily have been different, but because they are important pieces of national business. They should not have been handled by people slinking out of town, many of whom won’t be back. On the other hand, the vote on START and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) is less important than the execution.

The thoroughly repudiated, lame duck Congress, holding but a 13% approval rating in the polls, took up two big pieces of legislation that were better left to the incoming class – not because the results would necessarily have been different, but because they are important pieces of national business. They should not have been handled by people slinking out of town, many of whom won’t be back. On the other hand, the vote on START and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) is less important than the execution.

START, like all treaties, is only as good as its signatories and the Russians are serial cheaters. Their goal may have been to make themselves seem important by putting their nuclear arsenal on par with ours, but American concerns are bigger. Crucial for us is what the United States will do to modernize our own arsenal, advance funding and research for missile defense, and decide how to deal with the search for and proliferation of nuclear capabilities by states other than Russia – primarily China, North Korea, Iranian, Syrian, and now Venezuela.

The Administration promised money for strategic modernization, and President Obama’s stated commitment to missile defense was encouraging. But the hard work of continued funding and support will have to be done in Congress – the new Congress. That Congress, while drowning in red ink, has to remember that to “provide for the common defense” and “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” is what they were elected to do.

The debate over DADT was aggravating because American soldiers (gay and straight) are fighting two wars at the same time. Meanwhile, the United States is watching the emergence of al Qaeda in Yemen and North Africa, and the unwillingness or inability of Pakistan to root our adversaries out of the far reaches of their country. At the same time, Lebanon is descending into chaos; China is expanding and upgrading its navy and its reach in the Pacific; Iran continues to fund Hezbollah and Hamas, and makes new overtures in Venezuela, Brazil and Ecuador; and Nicaragua subverts its own constitution to permit the emergence of a Sandinista dictator. Our closest neighbor, Mexico, is fighting an ever-bloodier drug war not only on our border but also inside our country. And we have no defense budget.

Congress had the time and inclination to spend days and weeks discussing social policy for our military but no time to discuss military policy and military funding. Billions for Iraq and Afghanistan warranted exactly zero minutes of discussion, the same number devoted to discussing the President’s Afghan war review.

How the rules for DADT are managed is now a military matter and we trust they will do the right thing by all American soldiers. At the same time, we were appalled by the suggestion of the Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen that Marine Corps Commandant James Amos be fired for giving an honest opinion about DADT when asked and being on the losing end of the vote when it came. Members of the armed forces take an oath to the Constitution, not to politics of any sort. Congress and the President have to believe military officers will be honest about the conduct of war and the management of the military. If an officer has to fear political retaliation if his opinion doesn’t meet with the approval of others, including a Washington Post opinion-monger, how will we get honest officers? And how can we manage without them?

It is a good thing that Congress is leaving – the quicker the better.

We hope the new Congress has priorities that include missile defense, a well-debated defense budget following policy reviews in Afghanistan and Iraq to ensure that our troops have the equipment they need and the political support they deserve, and a better understanding of emerging threats to our country and to our friends abroad.