Over the past several months, you’ve heard us talk a lot about the New Strategic Arms Treaty (START) — how it will make us safer now and take an important step in the right direction, toward a future free from nuclear weapons.
But earlier this week, Senator Jon Kyl stalled the vote. For reasons that remain strangely elusive and vague, a handful of senators are dragging their feet on a treaty that has the unanimous support of our military leadership, the judgment of our national security establishment, and strong public support. If this obstructionism wins out and our leaders don’t vote in the next 6 weeks, the treaty will return to committee next year, erasing the progress made in the last 7 months. As a result, New START may not be ratified.
The treaty is now at a make or break point, and there are serious consequences for inaction. Failing to ratify the treaty will undermine U.S. leadership on nonproliferation, leave us without “boots on the ground” inspectors for the Russian arsenal, jeopardize future arms control agreements, and hinder international cooperation on common threats, such as the containment of Iran’s nuclear program—not to mention the failure to reduce Cold War-sized nuclear arsenals by about one-third.
Nuclear weapons demand a level of seriousness that rises above partisanship. Christians should respond with an adequate level of moral gravity: if we don’t have the courage and responsibility to speak truth in this climate of fear, foolishness, and misinformation, who will?
Please, take five minutes and call your Senators and tell them you support the ratification of the New START treaty in 2010.
