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Q: Is the Pentagon prepared to make unilateral reductions in the nuclear arsenal regardless of Russian actions or lack of Russian actions?
A: That remains to be seen. As you know, right now, there's a law that prevents us from going down unilaterally to the START II levels until the DUMA ratifies START II. Senator Warner, I believe, said earlier this week at a hearing that that would be -- that this is something Congress would review. And it's something that the administration will be glad to discuss with Congress. But right now, we are following the law, and we will continue to follow the law. Whether Congress decides that it makes sense for us to reduce remains to be seen. But we remain hopeful that the Russians will ratify START II because they have to deal with the same problem we have to deal with, which is there a cost to maintaining the START I levels. The cost bites them much harder than it bites us. And therefore, they have a much greater incentive to go down to the START II levels under the START II treaty than we do. We will be able to incur the costs should we decide to do that.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan1999/t01071999_t0107asd.html