Speaking of affronts, thought I'd give you a taste of what we up against up here from the Minneapolis monopoly newspaper. This loony left rag has dropped any pretense of objectivity and declared war on Rod Grams.
Published Tuesday, November 2, 1999
Editoral: Grams & nuke tests -- So little awareness of so much
In a short essay that appeared Sunday on this page, Sen. Rod Grams sought to defend his recent vote against the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Far from reassuring Minnesotans, Grams' response provided even more reason to wonder at the senator's understanding and judgment in voting against this important treaty.
Agreed, it's a complex treaty on a complicated issue; that's why it took several decades to negotiate. That's also what you would expect, given that the focus is nuclear weapons and that one practical effect would be to freeze the world in its current, U.S.-friendly nuclear state, with a few nuclear nations, many non-nuclear nations and the United States dominating the entire lot.
On such complicated issues, it's common even for U.S. senators to rely on the opinions of those more knowledgeable. But it behooves a senator to make as thorough a survey of the experts as possible. Grams failed to do that, and the failure showed.
In his essay, the senator asserted without elaboration that the test ban treaty was "both unverifiable and unenforceable." That's why, he said, it was opposed by six former secretaries of defense, four former CIA directors, four former National Security Agency directors, two former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Henry Kissinger and Sen. Richard Lugar.
"In contrast," the senator said, "I am aware of only one former Cabinet official who came out in support of the Star Tribune's position on the CTBT."
Grams is mistaken in his claims of unverifiability and unenforceability. The system of international monitoring stations called for by the treaty would be both sensitive and global in reach, making it very difficult for anyone to cheat without being detected. The clout of the world community also would make this as enforceable as any international treaty.
Furthermore, while Grams may be aware of only one former Cabinet member who supports the treaty, there are many. His statement makes you to wonder how the senator could be so unaware of so much and still do a proper job of preparing for this important vote. Here is a partial list of prominent treaty supporters:
Former secretaries of defense: Robert McNamara, Harold Brown, William Perry.
Former secretaries of state: Warren Christopher, Cyrus Vance, Lawrence Eagleburger.
Former secretaries of energy: Hazel O'Leary, Federico Peña.
Former directors of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency: Ambassador Ralph Earle II, Major Gen. William F. Burns, Lt. Gen. George M. Seignious II, Ambassador Paul Warnke.
Current and former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Gen. Hugh Shelton, Gen. John Shalikashvili, Gen. Colin Powell, Gen. David Jones, Adm. William Crowe.
Directors of the three national laboratories: Dr. John Browne, director of Los Alamos National Laboratory; Dr. Paul Robinson, director of Sandia National Laboratory; Dr. Bruce Tarter, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Other prominent national security figures: Ambassador Paul H. Nitze, Reagan administration arms control negotiator; Adm. Stansfield Turner, former CIA director; Dr. Hans Bethe, Nobel laureate, emeritus professor of physics, Cornell University and head of the Manhattan Project's theoretical division; Dr. Freeman Dyson, emeritus professor of physics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; Dr. Richard Garwin, senior fellow for science and technology, Council on Foreign Relations, consultant to Sandia National Laboratory, former consultant to Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Nobel laureates in physics: 32.
Present and former military service chiefs: 30.
There's more, but you get the point: Grams is a mile wide of reality both in his objections to the treaty's substance and in his assertion of broad treaty opposition among former high-ranking government officials. Grams' record on arms control has been a tremendous disappointment. The issue should be of great interest to Minnesota voters during next year's Senate campaign.
© Copyright 1999 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
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