TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

McCain Calls For Nuclear Policy Changes

ADVERTISEMENT

Los Angeles Times

Published: May 28, 2008

DENVER - Sen. John McCain attempted to distance himself from the Bush administration Tuesday on a contentious foreign policy issue, saying he would work more closely with Russia on nuclear disarmament and would stop plans for a nuclear weapon once coveted by the current president.

McCain's advisers characterized his speech on nuclear security policy as a "significant departure" from President Bush's policies, and it did embrace several initiatives that have been touted by moderates in both parties but largely shunned by the White House.

At the same time, nuclear policy experts said McCain's proposals marked a less dramatic break from the current administration than his campaign suggested.

McCain's presidential campaign has struggled to distance the candidate from the unpopular president, a strategy complicated by the Arizona Republican's close embrace of Bush's recent Iraq war policies, which a large majority of Americans continues to oppose.

The senator's awkward relationship with the president was highlighted Tuesday when, after delivering the address at the University of Denver, he headed to Phoenix to join Bush for a fundraiser.

The presumptive Republican nominee, who was interrupted four times by anti-Iraq war protesters, argued that past administrations should have acted more aggressively to control nuclear proliferation and that the United States must lead by cutting its own stockpile.

"The Cold War ended almost 20 years ago, and the time has come to take further measures to reduce dramatically the number of nuclear weapons in the world's arsenal," McCain said.

Bush, early in his administration, signed an agreement with Russia to reduce warheads, but McCain went further, promising to resume talks that would include legally binding verification measures, which the Bush administration has resisted.

The White House has attempted to engage Moscow on a pact to replace the existing Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires next year, but the talks have stalled over U.S. insistence that any new deal be free of the kind of detailed inspection and verification regimes that characterized Cold War-era treaties.

"These are areas that the Russians have indicated an interest in that have not been taken up by the Bush administration," said Randy Scheunemann, a top national security adviser to McCain.

In addition, McCain promised he would be "taking another look" at the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, a 1990s-era pact that bars any nuclear testing but was never ratified by the U.S. Senate. The Bush administration has opposed the treaty.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT