Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site iuvax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!notes
From: notes@iuvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Reagan'scon's contempt for law - (nf)
Message-ID: <341@iuvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 13-Apr-84 01:03:54 EST
Article-I.D.: iuvax.341
Posted: Fri Apr 13 01:03:54 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 15-Apr-84 07:12:03 EST
Sender: notes@iuvax.UUCP
Organization: Indiana University
Lines: 40

#N:iuvax:2000028:000:2022
iuvax!scsg    Apr 12 12:56:00 1984


Reagan has been accusing the Soviets of violating past arms treaties
without revealing the supposed violations nor bringing the case before
the Standing Consultative Committee which is supposed to judge such
claims. Nor does he point out that many of the supposed violations are
of treaties (SALT II, the Threshold Test Ban Treaty, the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty,etc.) that the US has never formally ratified in large
part due to Reagan's opposition.  The latest issue of US News and World
Report nonchalantly reported that the Reagan administration plans to
openly violate SALT II with the lanuching of a seventh Trident nuclear
equipped submarine in 1985.  So much for cheating on past treaties!
Just as Reagan has been condemned for his administrations flagrant
disregard of International Law with the mining of Nicaraguan harbors,so
he should be condemned for openly planning to violate past arms treaties
and refusing to allow claims of violations by either the US or the Soviets
to be brought before the Standing Consultative Committee for judgement.
The Standing Consultative Committee is not a joke.  Past presidents,
both Republican and Democratic have brought claims before the SCC and
in every case resolved questions of arms control violations. In several
instances the USSR stopped activities that had been judged to be violations
of nuclear arms agreements.  If Reagan believes that the Russians are cheating
then why not bring such claims to a body which will STOP such violations?
The reason seems to be that Reagan and his administration have no respect
for either treaties or International Law.  
Reagan himself said the following in a speech to the West Point cadets
in 1981: 
   The argument, if there is any, will be over which weapons, not
   whether we should forsake weapons for treaties and agreements.
 
Reagan seems to be following the course suggested above by scrapping
existing arms control treaties for ever more weapons.
 
tim sevener
Indiana University, Bloomington
pur-ee!iuvax!scsg