"No longer will Russia allow nebulous terms, anything that's going to be negotiated must be nailed down in writing with absolute strict levels of compliance verification. In fact, it's a whole new world of arms control, one that the United States hasn't been used to since the beginning, back in 1987, 1991, when we signed the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty and the initial START Treaty. These were treaties negotiated in good faith, where we treated the Russians as our equals with total reciprocity. And that's going to have to be the case going forward. Or else from the Russian perspective, there is no reason to engage in arms control," Ritter stated.
"We've been wrong across the board. The Russians have now fielded systems in numbers that are on active service that will defeat any missile defense system we ever develop. So, we've guessed wrong on our technological capabilities, and we've guessed wrong on Russia's ability to sustain their technological counters," the retired US Marine major said, adding that "the day and age when the United States could credibly sell itself as the exceptional nation, as the world's indispensable power, as we have often articulated ourselves, is over."