Jon Kyl: “I very strongly support the amendment offered by my colleagues, Senators McCain and Barrasso. The primary point here is…”

“I very strongly support the amendment offered by my colleagues, Senators McCain and Barrasso. The primary point here is the preamble has created a great deal of confusion and it will create discord between the two parties here--between the Russian Federation and the U.S. Government. There is a built-in conflict, a big problem. It is a tumor here, and it is going to grow and eventually create a conflict between our two countries that frankly isn't necessary, and that is the purpose for removing this language from the preamble that creates this problem in the first place, that reestablishes the linkage between strategic offensive weapons--which are the subject of the treaty--and missile defenses, which are explicitly not the subject of the treaty. My colleague Senator McCain pointed out that Secretary Rice had written an op-ed where she said one of the most concerning things--worrisome, I think, was her word--about this treaty is that reestablishment of the linkage which the Bush administration had worked very hard to eliminate.”