Is There A Poison Pill In The New START Agreement? And Is It Called Missile Defense?

Is There A Poison Pill In The New START Agreement? And Is It Called Missile Defense?

Questions Persist Over Arms Pact's Missile Defense Terms -- Global Security Newswire

Russia yesterday reaffirmed its right to withdraw from a pending successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty if the United States bolstered its missile defense forces past a certain degree, possibly throwing into question a compromise the countries had reached on the issue, the Washington Times reported (see GSN, March 29).

U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last week approved the final terms of the pact, which would require the United States and Russia to both lower their respective strategic arsenals to 1,550 deployed warheads. Each nation's fielded nuclear delivery vehicles -- missiles, submarines and bombers -- would be capped at 700, with another 100 allowed in reserve. The leaders are expected to sign the document in the Czech capital of Prague on April 8.


Missile Defense has always been the sticky point in any U.S.-Russian nuclear arms agreement. The fact that it should be coming out now before the treaty is even signed is a bad omen that tells me that if the U.S. continues with its missile defense program, the Russian's will eventually walk away from the treaty.