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McCain, Bush largely similar on nuclear policies
WASHINGTON — John McCain's nuclear proposals are largely in line with those of the unpopular President Bush, and even where the two disagree, the Republican presidential candidate has waffled.
Like the president, McCain favors extending arms control deals with Russia, opening strategic nuclear talks with China and pressing on multiple fronts to limit the spread of nuclear arms technologies.
The most notable difference is perhaps the Arizona Republican's declaration that he dreams of seeing nuclear weapons eliminated. Yet even on that point McCain equivocated by also stating in his nuclear policy speech Tuesday that "we must continue to deploy a safe and reliable nuclear deterrent."
McCain seemed to signal that stopping the illicit spread of nuclear arms technology would be more of a priority in his White House than it has under Bush, calling it a "crisis" that cannot be ended by military action alone.
McCain split with Bush by advocating the total withdrawal of U.S. and Russian short-range nuclear weapons in Europe, although the only such U.S. weapons there are a small number of aerial bombs. The vast majority of U.S. tactical nuclear arms in Europe were ordered out by the first President Bush.
McCain also proposed reviving a treaty banning the testing of nuclear weapons, which the Senate rejected during the Clinton administration and which the Bush White House did not attempt to resurrect.
McCain said he would "cancel all further work" on development of a new earth-penetrating nuclear weapon that the Bush administration had proposed but abandoned more than two years ago. The senator did not explicitly say whether he would support reviving any element of nuclear arms production.
"I would only support the development of any new type of nuclear weapon that is absolutely essential for the viability of our deterrent, that results in making possible further decreases in the size of our nuclear arsenal and furthers our global nuclear security goals," McCain said.
The broad scope of McCain's vision on nuclear policy appears similar in many important ways to that of Bush, whose administration conducted an in-depth review of nuclear issues shortly after it took office. In a report published in January 2002, that review concluded that nuclear weapons "play a critical role in the defense capabilities of the United States" in support of its friends and allies.
In many respects the McCain approach mirrored Bush's:
_ He said he would seek to reduce the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal "to the lowest level we judge necessary," but he mentioned no numbers. The Bush administration in 2002 worked out a deal with Moscow to shrink the number of deployed U.S. strategic nuclear warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 by 2012. According to the private nuclear expert Robert S. Norris, as of January that number stood at about 3,575, so substantial further reductions are already in the works.
_ The language he used to qualify his call for further cuts was strikingly similar to that of the current administration. McCain favored reducing U.S. nuclear weapons to the "lowest number possible, consistent with our security requirements and global commitments." In a 2002 document describing the arms accord with Moscow, Bush said the two countries agreed to reduce nuclear weapons to the "lowest possible levels, consistent with their national security requirements and alliance obligations."
_ He called for a new arms control agreement with Russia, which he said should reflect the nuclear reductions he would seek. He provided no particulars. He said it should be possible to agree with Russia on binding rules for verifying additional nuclear weapons reductions, and he said those verification measures should be based on those currently in effect under a treaty that expires in 2009. The Bush administration initially opposed making such measures binding but recently relented to Moscow's insistence on that point.
McCain said that if elected he would order the Joint Chiefs of Staff to review all aspects of U.S. nuclear strategy and policy, and that he would "keep an open mind on all responsible proposals."
He expressed support for further developing U.S. defenses against ballistic missiles, a program that has been a cornerstone of the Bush administration's national security strategy.
In other respects McCain's proposals were closer to the Bush view than McCain seemed to suggest.
For example, he said, "I believe we should also begin a dialogue with China on strategic and nuclear issues." Such talks are already under way, although at an early stage and with minimal result so far.
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ROBERT BURNS | May 28, 2008 09:14 PM EST |
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