Obama gearing up to slash U.S. nuclear arsenal

[unhappycamper]

Obama gearing up to slash U.S. nuclear arsenal
By Barry Schweid - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Feb 5, 2009 21:03:55 EST

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, reversing the Bush administration’s limited interest in nuclear disarmament, is gearing up for early negotiations with Russia on a treaty that would sharply reduce stockpiles of nuclear warheads.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has notified Congress and her staff that she intends to get started quickly on talks with the Russians, who have voiced interest in recent weeks in settling on a treaty calling for cutbacks in arsenals on both sides.

The 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires at the end of the year. It limited the United States and Russia to 6,000 nuclear warheads each. The American stockpile is believed to be about 2,300 warheads, and the Russians’ even lower.

Clinton’s spokesman, Robert Wood, said the administration was serious about negotiating reductions in nuclear weapons. A replacement treaty for START “will be put on a fast track,” Wood said.

President Barack Obama said during the campaign that he would seek verifiable reductions in all U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons. Clinton told Congress last month that deep reductions were the goal.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/02/ap_nuke_warheads_020509w/%2e

[struggle4progress]

1. Everybody benefits if we start getting rid of those things. Lots of us bit our nails to bleeding

stubs after the Soviet collapse, worrying what would happen to the nukes: it never occurred to most of us, until the Minot fiasco, that control of US nukes might be just as worrisome a problem