ambassador to germany amitai etzioni he's a professor at george washington university and daryl kimball he is the executive director of the arms control association and another member of our cross talk team on the hunger for a gentleman cross talk rules in effect and that means you can jump in anytime you want richard bird i can like to go to you are should i call you when bassett or because you were one of the chief negotiators if not the chief negotiator for the u.s. side first the first start agreement so looking at the at the debate that is going on we can talk about in the about this the lengthy process on this program but do you give it your household approval is this a good treaty and then if it isn't i want to know why the republicans are blocking it later go ahead and bassett or bird. well to begin with your first question is it a good treaty i you're correct i did negotiate the start one treaty or i led the u.s. delegation that negotiated that treaty with our russian counterparts i was also heavily involved in one form or another i think with most the us russian arms control a