The START treaty has provisions that ban the development of new ICBMs that carry multiple reentry systems (read: nukes). For years now, Russia has bent that provision by modifying their Topol-M ICBM into the newer RS-24 system, a road-mobile ICBM with a whopping ten bombs per missile. Once START expires in December, Russia will be free to fully deploy the RS-24 — and is indeed planning to do so. So why is Obama rushing to forge a new agreement with the Russians when they’re clearly not interested in adhering to the old one? Why is Obama deadset on cutting our nuclear arsenal when it’s obvious he’ll get little from Moscow in return? If the president honestly wants to see results in the new treaty (and if he’s interested in avoiding another missile defense snafu), there’s an easy way to motivate Moscow to lose the RS-24: bring back the Peacekeeper Missile. The Peacekeeper was cut by Secretary Rumsfeld as a cost saving measure, which proved to be a shortsighted. It was one of those legendary Cold War weapon systems, with 10 warheads per sortie and laser sharp accuracy. It scared the hell of out of the Russians, both for its advanced reentry systems and it’s upgraded guidance sets. We cut the Peacekeeper unilaterally, so there’s nothing in START that prevents its resurrection. It’d be an awfully strong bargaining chip in new treaty negotiations, and could indeed incentivize the Russians to ditch their destabilizing new RS-24. Of course I’m fantasizing — Obama would never move in a direction opposite of his nuclear-free utopian world, even if it was for the short term and ultimately contributed to his grand disarmament vision. Indeed liberals ridicule the very notion that strong posturing can bring about real diplomatic progress. But it was Ronald Reagan, not lauded disarmament champions, who successfully forged the agreement which pulled all short and medium range nuclear missiles out of Europe — and he did it by freely deploying the medium range Pershing II nuclear missile and the Ground Launched Cruise Missile in Belgium, Germany, and Great Britain. That’s the language the Russians speak and that’s the language the Russians understand. If Obama can’t wrap his head around the basic nature of his Russian adversary, he’s destined for another European missile defense embarrassment come treaty time.
