Just Stop START

When the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was signed, the United States and the free nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization were at crossed sabers with the Soviet-dominated slave states of the Warsaw Pact. As the new START is deliberated in the United States Senate no such tension prevails, the Soviet Union is but a memory and many stalwarts from the old Warsaw Pact (Poland, the Czech Republic, the Baltic states, etc.) now sit with rather than against the United States- indeed making meaningful contribution to NATO. The new START is an outdated and useless effort from a bygone era where two superpowers jousted for control of the globe. There is no prospect whatsoever that Russia as it exists today and the United States will fight each other. The real menace today comes from outlier countries North Korea and Iran and their atomic weapons ambition (which highlights the need for a viable missile defense) or a nuclear weapon falling into the hands of a terrorist entity like al-Qaeda. All this recently negotiated mess of START does is prevent America from developing and deploying a robust missile defense for the homeland and for our allies. That and the fact that verification procedures are less binding on Russia make entering the treaty a strategic danger and an impediment to US national defense that responsible Senators must block. There is no political motive in thwarting yet another Obama agenda item that if adopted actually weakens the nation because if passed the arms limitation treaty is beyond the merely symbolic, the new START actually endangers the country and our allies.