On the recordDecember 16, 2010
I completely respect what the Senator from Arizona has just said, and we obviously want to give him time to lay any predicate to whatever he may perceive to be a flaw. For instance, as he raises the question about the MIRVing, as he just did-- and later, I will go through each of these points--but the fact is, the reason the Russians are MIRVing--which we all understand, and there are plenty of letters from the Strategic Command and elsewhere that will articulate the way in which they do not see that as a threat--the reason they MIRV is because they cannot afford to do some of the other things with respect to the numbers of missiles, so they put more warheads on one missile. We have preserved a very significant breakout capacity here. As General Chilton and others will point out, it is not a flaw at all. It is actually an advantage which is maintained in this treaty for the American strategic posture. I will go into that later. What the Senator describes as a flaw from his point of view I think the record will well state is sort of a preserved American advantage. That said, I respect, obviously--we want to get this joined. I think what the Senator has just laid out is very helpful. It will help us join the debate. But I do want to impress that the sooner we can get to some of these amendments, the more we can really discover whether something is, in fact, a flaw or is not a flaw and has been adequately answered.
