New START treaty will be positive step

As the lame-duck session of Congress proceeds, we expect Senate ratification of the new START treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation to be debated. Iowans should encourage Sens. Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin to vote for ratification.

What people forget is that after the United States dropped nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was a worldwide movement to disarm.

President Harry Truman and his Cabinet believed that nuclear weapons were something that the United States should use and have in its arsenal.

In 1945, the United Nations was formed partly as a response to global desire to manage nuclear technology and coordinate efforts in non-proliferation. We tend to forget this today.

We also tend to forget the story of David Hahn, the Boy Scout who almost succeeded in building a nuclear reactor in his backyard to get a merit badge in 1994. His story illustrates how easy it is to enrich uranium. If a Boy Scout can do this, then so, too, can terrorists, and that's the problem.

The new START does not go far enough, but absent a movement like there was after we dropped the bomb, it is up to each of us to help rid the world of these weapons. Ratifying new START would be a step in that direction.

Marilyn Langhurst

Cedar Rapids