The moment we are working towards is fast approaching. We are getting word that the Senate could vote in just a few weeks on a new US agreement with Russia called New START that will cut the size of both nations’ nuclear arsenals. Your senators need to be reminded that this treaty would serve as a crucial stepping stone towards a nuclear weapons free world.

From Palin to Romney, hard-right Republicans are putting nuclear security on the line to score a win against Obama. According to former Sen. Tom Daschle, the failure to ratify this treaty could trigger “nuclear anarchy” by unraveling decades of international agreements that have kept the spread of nuclear weapons in check. There is too much at stake to let partisan games stand in the way. Will you call your senators now?

In these last crucial weeks before a likely vote on the New START, many Senate Republicans are still on-the-fence about which way they will vote. So what are the consequences if New START fails?

The latest bout of treaty opposition is in the form of fundraising from right wing groups such as The Heritage Foundation and The John Birch Society (which has consistently opposed every nuclear arms treaty between the US and the Soviet Union/Russia.) Mitt Romney followed up his ridiculous Washington Post op-ed with a fundraising letter calling for donations to stop the treaty. It’s another not-so-subtle attempt to burnish his neoconservative credentials for the 2012 GOP presidential race.

Friends,

On July 16, 1945 the first experimental atomic bomb was exploded at the site known as Trinity at Alamogordo, New Mexico. It was the beginning of what could someday be the end.

The rest, as they say, is history (and some of it particularly horrific history); but the history is still being written each day as many nations (led by the model of the United States) continue to rely on nuclear weapons while others seek to develop them. Monkey see, monkey do!!!

Our nation could be leading the world toward disarmament and ultimately abolition, but instead we continue to utilize the rhetoric of “deterrence” and “national security”, and seem to find a host of enemies since losing the comfort of the Cold War enemy. As a result we are re-building the Cold War infrastructure that made Trinity (and over the years tens of thousands of nuclear weapons) possible.

In response to misplaced concern about the long-term reliability of the nuclear arsenal, the Obama administration sent Congress a budget request for the nuclear weapons complex bigger than anything the nukes-loving Bush administration tried to push through. Despite scientific evidence that current programs can ensure a safe and reliable stockpile, the administration is increasing nuclear weapons complex funding by 10% to appease critics of broader nonproliferation efforts like the New START agreement and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. In a congressionally mandated report, the administration announced its intent to spend $180 billion over the next ten years to “modernize” the nuclear weapons complex and delivery systems. This massive spending contradicts the vision of moving toward a world free of nuclear weapons, and is disconcerting as domestic spending programs like education are subject to a spending freeze. In this context, a new GAO report about cost overruns by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is particularly alarming.

For the past two years, I’ve been blogging on nuclear weapons news, from our success in defeating the Bush administration’s push for new nuclear weapons to the New START treaty to cut US and Russian nuclear arsenals, which is awaiting ratification by the US Senate. It’s been a great experience.

I’m moving on to attend graduate school and so in my final blog post, I wanted to remind our Groundswell readers to keep checking in for the latest news on nukes. Our new Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World coordinator Katie Heald will be taking my spot on the blog. She’ll keep you up to date on what you can do to encourage your senators to ratify the New START treaty, as well as how you can help our ongoing efforts to cut the bloated $180 billion for nuclear weapons and facilities being considered for the next decade. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for Katie’s blog posts!