If you really want to understand an issue, find a newspaper reporter, sit him or her in a bar and start buying beer. In 30 minutes, she or he will lay the whole thing out for you with astonishing clarity. Now, why they fail to explain things so clearly when they sit down to write their stories is a mystery. I used to be a newspaper reporter and I was a victim of the same disease. Part of my mission here at Soapbox is to try to atone for those sins of years long ago by bringing some clarity to the news. This week’s topic is the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty. Ready? Here we go.
On a political level, this whole debate is about the Republicans in the Senate trying to embarrass the president. The U.S. signed the test ban treaty more than two years ago, but the Senate has never ratified it. Among other things, the Republicans don’t want to let Bill Clinton claim the treaty as an accomplishment of his administration. But denying Clinton a victory wasn’t good enough. Trent Lott and company decided to rub the president’s nose in it, so they brought the treaty to the Senate floor without warning, in a sneak attack and figure they can vote it down before the White House has a chance to drum up support for ratification.
You see, the GOP has been running the Senate for a few years now and they’re catching wise to all the little parliamentary tricks the Democrats used to pull on them when they were running the joint. One thing the Republicans haven’t seemed to learn is that those little tricks sometimes blow up in your face.
The White House reacted much quicker than Senator Lott expected. Bill Clinton loves an uphill battle. That’s one reason he’s always getting himself into trouble. It’s all systems go at the Oval Office and within days there’s an op-ed in the New York Times signed by Jacques Chirac, Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder, three names I never thought I’d see on the same document. Stranger still, Madeleine Albright takes time away from her travels to actually visit the United States. Now Trent Lott is in damage control mode, trying to back out of this thing without looking as stupid as Newt Gingrich did when he shut down the government. In all his scheming, Senator Lott forgot about one thing: substance.
A Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban is a good idea. It was a good thing to sign the treaty and it would be a better thing to ratify it. The United States of America has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. That will not change in the foreseeable future and probably not ever. We also have the most sophisticated computer testing programs, so we don’t need to detonate actual bombs to improve our stockpile. In fact, in 35 years, fewer than one percent of design flaws were found through detonation testing.
So whether or not the Senate ratifies the test ban treaty, the U.S. will, in all likelihood, never conduct a detonation test of a nuclear device ever again. We don’t need to do it, we have nothing to lose by signing the treaty.
The newspapers and Sunday morning talk shows have been full of senators who say they oppose ratification of the treaty because we cannot be absolutely, 100 percent sure that someone, somewhere is not cheating. If that’s the standard for ratifying a treaty, I’m surprised any treaty has ever been ratified. If there’s no way to cheat, you don’t need treaties.
Yes, if the Senate ratifies the treaty, someone, somewhere may conduct a sneaky little test. But by refusing to ratify the treaty, the Senate will not prevent that sneaky little test from happening.
The thing to do is ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, outlaw testing, then if we catch a signatory nation testing, we nail them for it, through international sanctions. That’s how it works; it’s called civilization. The American people know that. I just wonder when the news will leak into the Senate.
News to the Senate
If you really want to understand an issue, find a newspaper reporter, sit him or her in a bar and start buying beer. In 30 minutes, she or he will lay the whole thing out for you with astonishing clarity. Now, why they fail to explain things so clearly when they sit down to write their stories is a mystery. I used to be a newspaper reporter and I was a victim of the same disease. Part of my mission here at Soapbox is to try to atone for those sins of years long ago by bringing some clarity to the news. This week’s topic is the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty. Ready? Here we go.
On a political level, this whole debate is about the Republicans in the Senate trying to embarrass the president. The U.S. signed the test ban treaty more than two years ago, but the Senate has never ratified it. Among other things, the Republicans don’t want to let Bill Clinton claim the treaty as an accomplishment of his administration. But denying Clinton a victory wasn’t good enough. Trent Lott and company decided to rub the president’s nose in it, so they brought the treaty to the Senate floor without warning, in a sneak attack and figure they can vote it down before the White House has a chance to drum up support for ratification.
You see, the GOP has been running the Senate for a few years now and they’re catching wise to all the little parliamentary tricks the Democrats used to pull on them when they were running the joint. One thing the Republicans haven’t seemed to learn is that those little tricks sometimes blow up in your face.
The White House reacted much quicker than Senator Lott expected. Bill Clinton loves an uphill battle. That’s one reason he’s always getting himself into trouble. It’s all systems go at the Oval Office and within days there’s an op-ed in the New York Times signed by Jacques Chirac, Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder, three names I never thought I’d see on the same document. Stranger still, Madeleine Albright takes time away from her travels to actually visit the United States. Now Trent Lott is in damage control mode, trying to back out of this thing without looking as stupid as Newt Gingrich did when he shut down the government. In all his scheming, Senator Lott forgot about one thing: substance.
A Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban is a good idea. It was a good thing to sign the treaty and it would be a better thing to ratify it. The United States of America has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. That will not change in the foreseeable future and probably not ever. We also have the most sophisticated computer testing programs, so we don’t need to detonate actual bombs to improve our stockpile. In fact, in 35 years, fewer than one percent of design flaws were found through detonation testing.
So whether or not the Senate ratifies the test ban treaty, the U.S. will, in all likelihood, never conduct a detonation test of a nuclear device ever again. We don’t need to do it, we have nothing to lose by signing the treaty.
The newspapers and Sunday morning talk shows have been full of senators who say they oppose ratification of the treaty because we cannot be absolutely, 100 percent sure that someone, somewhere is not cheating. If that’s the standard for ratifying a treaty, I’m surprised any treaty has ever been ratified. If there’s no way to cheat, you don’t need treaties.
Yes, if the Senate ratifies the treaty, someone, somewhere may conduct a sneaky little test. But by refusing to ratify the treaty, the Senate will not prevent that sneaky little test from happening.
The thing to do is ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, outlaw testing, then if we catch a signatory nation testing, we nail them for it, through international sanctions. That’s how it works; it’s called civilization. The American people know that. I just wonder when the news will leak into the Senate.