National Security -- A New START
Tomorrow, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) will expire. The treaty has been in place for the past 18 years and signaled the end of the Cold War, as it reduced U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals and helped prevent Russian nuclear materials from falling into the rogue hands. While it is unfortunate that a follow-on agreement could not be reached and ratified prior to the Dec. 5 deadline, the limited timeframe that the Obama administration had to complete a treaty, as well as the dithering and dangerous approach of the Bush administration over the last eight years, has led to this critical juncture. The Obama administration has been racing against the clock to negotiate a new follow-on START treaty and looks set to complete negotiations by the end of the month at the latest. The new treaty will provide verifiable reductions in the number of nuclear weapons and limit the risk of them falling into the wrong hands. This accomplishment would represent a big step toward the realization of the President's ambitious vision of a world without nuclear weapons -- an effort that was one of the primary reasons the Nobel committee decided to award President Obama with its peace prize. Recognizing that the Cold War is over, Obama laid out a vision of a world without nuclear weapons last spring in Prague. A new START agreement is the first big step on the path toward achieving this goal.
Click the red headline to read more and to visit source links as well as "Under the Radar" and "Think Fast"
Source: The Progress Report
Tomorrow, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) will expire. The treaty has been in place for the past 18 years and signaled the end of the Cold War, as it reduced U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals and helped prevent Russian nuclear materials from falling into the rogue hands. While it is unfortunate that a follow-on agreement could not be reached and ratified prior to the Dec. 5 deadline, the limited timeframe that the Obama administration had to complete a treaty, as well as the dithering and dangerous approach of the Bush administration over the last eight years, has led to this critical juncture. The Obama administration has been racing against the clock to negotiate a new follow-on START treaty and looks set to complete negotiations by the end of the month at the latest. The new treaty will provide verifiable reductions in the number of nuclear weapons and limit the risk of them falling into the wrong hands. This accomplishment would represent a big step toward the realization of the President's ambitious vision of a world without nuclear weapons -- an effort that was one of the primary reasons the Nobel committee decided to award President Obama with its peace prize. Recognizing that the Cold War is over, Obama laid out a vision of a world without nuclear weapons last spring in Prague. A new START agreement is the first big step on the path toward achieving this goal.
Click the red headline to read more and to visit source links as well as "Under the Radar" and "Think Fast"
Source: The Progress Report