U.S. Nuclear Overtures Would Likely Fall on Deaf Ears

After days of anti-Russian sentiment at the weekend NATO summit in Warsaw, reports surfaced Monday that the White House's National Security Council is preparing to introduce more nuclear arms controls. The White House could undertake these politically controversial nuclear policy changes without having to seek formal congressional approval, sidestepping the current U.S. political theater during this election season. Options under consideration are declaring a "no first use" policy by the U.S. nuclear arsenal, pushing the U.N. Security Council to ban nuclear weapons testing, scaling down long-term plans for the $350 billion modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and exercising the option under the New START treaty, which expires in 2021, to offer Russia a five-year extension. But Russia, under growing pressure from the West, has been increasingly wary of negotiating away its nuclear capabilities....