Symbolic return to sender of replica of nuclear bomb.
President Bush said the new agreement "will liquidate the legacy
of the Cold War".
This claim is true only in that the United States and Russia are
no longer adversaries. However, the legacy of environmental damage
and human suffering of more than fifty years of nuclear materials
and weapons production, the massive stockpiles of nuclear materials
acquired and the remaining substantial nuclear arsenals on both
sides will, however, remain for decades to come.
William Peden, Greenpeace Disarmament campaigner said that,
"What people must realise is that with the Treaty of Moscow, not
one single nuclear weapon will be destroyed."
"Russia and the United States could have set the example today
that nuclear weapons are not tolerable and must be outlawed.
Instead they have sent a clear signal that it is acceptable to
retain nuclear weapons indefinitely.
According to Greenpeace the agreement signed in Moscow:
- will not legally bind either side to destroying a single
nuclear warhead or delivery vehicle (missile, plane, submarine or
truck);
- has no legally binding means of verification;
- is of limited duration (ten years, with no guarantee that its
limited constraints will be maintained);
- has no benchmarks to help gauge treaty compliance or
non-compliance;
- allows maximum flexibility in how each side structure their
nuclear arsenals over the next decade - including the possibility
of new nuclear weapons development and
deployment, and;
- does not address the thorny issue of the thousands tactical
nuclear weapons still deployed by both sides.
As Peden said, "This treaty undermines the past practice of
reducing nuclear arsenals in legally binding treaties that are both
irreversible and verifiable. Without such norms, the incentive for
the other six nations who possess nuclear weapons to themselves
permanently reduce their nuclear arsenal is limited."