The United States would be reneging on its pledge not to develop new nuclear weapons, and this would violate the spirit if not the letter of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which are geared to the elimination of nuclear weapons, not the making of new ones. In other words, we have never pledged not to develop new weapons. Most treaty signatories have developed new bombs and missiles, and some have even tested them. Why shouldn't we?