A Strong Case for a New START

[NJmaverick]

What is New START and why do we need it?

New START, the agreement between the United States and Russia on a successor to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, is a historic achievement that will increase the United States’ safety and security. It will help us move beyond the outdated strategic approaches of the Cold War and reduce the threat of nuclear war, and marks a significant step in advancing President Barack Obama’s vision of a world without nuclear weapons. It also shows that his policy of constructive engagement with Russia is working.

New START strengthens and modernizes the original START Treaty that President Ronald Reagan initiated in 1982 and George H.W. Bush signed in 1991. That agreement significantly reduced the number of nuclear weapons and launchers, but it also embodied Reagan’s favorite Russian proverb “trust but verify” by establishing an extensive verification and monitoring system to ensure compliance. This system helped build trust and mutual confidence that decreased the unimaginable consequences of а conflict between the world’s only nuclear superpowers.

Yet President George W. Bush’s reckless policies left this cornerstone of nuclear stability’s fate in doubt. Bush effectively cut off relations between the United States and Russia on nuclear issues by unilaterally pulling out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and refusing to engage in negotiations on a successor to START even though it was set to expire less than a year after he left office. The two countries had lost the ability to work together on arms control by the end of Bush’s presidency.

The Obama administration restored these ties by adopting an approach of constructive engagement with Moscow, and in little over a year it succeeded in negotiating an extensive new agreement that continues the legacy of Reagan’s verification system, which brought stability to U.S.-Russia nuclear relations for two decades.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/04/new_start.html

[zipplewrath]

1. It's too bad this is getting lost in Insurance Reform

This agreement is huge and the truth is it could be setting the stage for even greater reductions in the future. Neither side really wants nor needs these large stockpiles. They are expensive to maintain, and cause the owners more trouble than their worth. We have no other nations but each other that can justify the large numbers, and even that really was never a justification.