Inglis Warns Against Weakness In American Nuclear Policy

Press Release

U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) warned the Obama administration Wednesday that now isn't the time to soften its nuclear policy and that any international nuclear agreements should begin first with strong sanctions against the Iranian nuclear program.

"I disagree with the premise that the need for strong nuclear deterrence has declined," Inglis said. " If anything, we are seeing rogue nations trafficking in nuclear weapons technology as a mockery of our good intentions and grand ideas of a nuclear free world."

Inglis said he was concerned that the agreement between the U.S. and Russia for Nuclear Arms reduction was carried out in a vacuum, without getting clear commitment on the Iran issue.

"I welcome the Administration's efforts to review American nuclear policy and prevent loose nuclear fuel from falling into the hands of terrorists," Inglis said. "But we want to avoid any deal that binds our hands or erodes America's great strength. Withdrawing from the eastern European missile defense sites and cutting funding for missile defense systems sent the wrong message to our allies last year, and now we seem to be heading further down the same road."

April has been a crucial month for American nuclear security policy. President Barack Obama signed the New START strategic arms reduction treaty with President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia.

The Administration has also issued its 2010 Nuclear Posture Review, and hosted 46 world leaders in a nuclear security summit in Washington, DC.

"And yet over the past 10 days we see memos being leaked from within the administration showing real concern that the United States has not sufficiently dealt with the nuclear ambitions of Iran."

This week, an unclassified report sent to Congress stated that with sufficient foreign assistance, Iran could probably develop and test an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the United States by 2015, according to a report by Reuters.

The report also included an assessment of Iran's broader military capabilities and support for insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as groups like Hamas in the Palestinian territories and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned in a secret memo reported this week by The New York Times that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran's progress toward nuclear capability.

"It is not clear we are gaining any further ground on the collective international will to do something meaningful about Iran despite all our good intentions," Inglis said. "A tough Iran policy ought to come first, before we start outlining when and where we will or won't use nuclear weapons and how we will reduce them."

The New START commits America and Russia to reducing the number of nuclear weapons platforms in the arsenal to 1,550. This does not include tactical nuclear weapons, which Russia has built in great numbers. Security experts have suggested that Russia's strategic arsenal would drop to close to this number regardless of treaty commitments, due to Russia's lack of funding for replacement warheads.

While the agreement with Russia is seen as improving relations, it is unclear whether Russia or China will back tough sanctions with bite on Iran.

"We have to avoid one-sided deals that give up the position of great strength that previous generations fought to provide us, and which we are so privileged to hold."

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