Ratifying START will be just a start unless U.S. begins to disarm
Ratifying START looks good on paper, but it may come at a heavy price, writes Alice Slater of Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and Abolition 2000. Obama has already promised the weapons labs $80 billion dollars to build three new bomb factories and an additional $100 billion for new delivery systems. Then he threw in another $4 billion to try to win Republican votes for the treaty. In the meantime, assurances are being given that the futile missile defense system will move forward. Slater concludes: "But if the US persists in developing its nuclear infrastructure with new bomb factories while threatening Russia with proliferating missiles, having unilaterally pulled out of the US-Soviet 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, then it's unlikely that this modest New START will help us down the path to peace."
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The Senate ratified the START Treaty shortly after 3pm today. A nice black eye for Sen. Kyl who said there wasn't time in the lame duck session - a clear stalling tactic. And a pretty big feather for Pres. Obama who made this one of his top foreign policy agendas. Now it remains to be seen whether the U.S. will begin meaninfgul disarmament.