Why Treaties Are Good Things

The Nukes of Hazard take on Peter Brookes's objections to negotiating treaties with the Russians. One of his objections is that the Russians don't adhere to treaties. One of his examples is his claim that the Russians aren't destroying their tactical nuclear weapons the way they said they would.

But the agreement on tactical nuclear weapons wasn't a treaty, it was one of those gentlemen's agreements that the Bushes were so fond of. So we don't tell the Russians what we're destroying in tactical nuclear weapons, and they don't tell us what they're destroying.

Pretty good deal Brookes is selling: don't make a treaty so that you don't know what the other side is doing, so that you can accuse them of violating that treaty that you never made.