Question by Peter G: What are the pros and cons of the arms treaty with Russia?
It seems to me that the government won’t use the defense shield against Russia. Will Russia reduce their number of nuclear warheads in proportion with our number of nuclear warheads?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Sean Hannigan
Stuff.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Joe C says
First, Defense Shield, Is their such a thing, no, and will there be such a thing in the next 10 years, no.
Wikipedia has a great article on all the ABM systems throughout the years.(1)
The US State Dept. has a faq page that will give you a good overview.(2)
But to answer your question you can read below,
"The broad picture is that in terms of numbers the reductions of the New START treaty will be, to put it mildly, extremely modest. In fact, Russia would not have to do anything at all – it is already in compliance with the new treaty (this is not to say that the treaty will not limit Russia – it will). The United States would probably have to do some real reductions, but nothing really dramatic is expected there as well – mostly it will be removing some ICBMs from silos. (It is interesting, in fact, how the treaty will deal with empty silos – both sides have some and they will probably reluctant to blow them up. UPDATE 03/29/10: It appears that the treaty indeed will not require elimination of silos.)"3
Bob J says
One con will be that the Russian's will have proof that the American people are stupid. Anyone who thinks that Russia will follow such a treaty is a complete idiot.