Do the bishops know who's resisting nuclear disarmament?

I was glad to see that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has joined a petition with four dozen other national groups to reduce the number of nuclear bombs and delivery systems.

According to Common Dreams, the initiative for the petition was taken by the Council for a Livable World and other participants besides the bishops include the Arms Control Association and Women's Action for New Directions (WAND).

But of course, President Barack Obama is not the problem. Republicans call START with Russia the "false start." Back in 1999, they rejected the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, 51 to 48, with only four Republicans joining the 44 Democrats to vote for the treaty.

In order to win START ratification in 2010, Obama promised a 10-year modernization of the weapons and delivery systems. This would include building a new plutonium manufacturing facility at Los Alamos, N.M., refurbishing of missiles in silos, and perhaps even a review of whether nuclear warheads could be used in tactical combat situations. But to date, the Democratic budgets have not included money to accomplish this modernization.

I know that the Council for a Livable World and WAND understand who is resisting nuclear weapons reduction. I'm not so sure the bishops do.