Nuke Reduction Unsafe
President Obama naively suggests the world can be free of nuclear weapons if the U.S. and Russia commit to arms reduction. Obama is negotiating a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia in December which could reduce the U.S. and Russian operational nuclear warhead arsenals from over 2,500 to 1,500 warheads each. The treaty assumes we can verify the Russians destroyed their 1,000 warheads. The treaty will also reduce the number of long-range missiles.
The reduction in U.S. nuclear/missile capabilities jeopardizes our national security because a number of other countries maintain nuclear weapons, including China, Pakistan and North Korea. Iran is currently developing nuclear weapons and Syria desires to have a nuclear capability. The world will never be free of nuclear weapons because countries like North Korea and Iran are lead by dictators who lust for the threatening power of nuclear weapons and the capability to use their nuclear arsenal against perceived enemies.
President Obama's lofty rhetoric sounds wonderful to himself and the Nobel Peace (In Weakness) Prize Committee, but I doubt he will satisfy his appetite for appeasement and get the leaders of the nuclear armed countries around a campfire to toast the elimination of nuclear weapons and merrily sing "Kumbaya."
Donald A. Moskowitz
Londonderry, N.H.
Don't Kill Bisbort Column
When I pick up the Valley Advocate every week, I turn first to This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow and then to Alan Bisbort's column. So now I read that due to something or other the paper has decided to stop running his column. You've got to be kidding. Are you totally nuts?
Rudy Nelson
Amherst
Editors' notes: Alan Bisbort's column, The World This Week, has been discontinued for financial reasons and because the Advocate is redoubling its emphasis on local news (the column originates in Connecticut). We hope to feature other articles by Bisbort from time to time.
Our article "Farm to You?" in last week's issue gave the impression that Dr. Gregory Gray of the University of Iowa wrote an article that appeared in Environmental Health Perspectives. Dr. Gray was quoted in the article, which was written by Charles W. Schmidt. We should also have made clear that epidemiologist Ellen Silbergeld is a former, not a current consultant to OSHA, the EPA and the World Health Organization. Silbergeld has received the funding for the study of zoonotic infections for which she applied to the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.
