Israel Matzav

Pushing back against disarming America

President Obama has a euphoric vision in which we will live in a nuclear-free world. That vision is totally unrealistic. If the United States gives up its nuclear weapons, in no time at all, the world will be dominated by terrorist states or by Russia and China. So the Pentagon has started to push back against Obama's nuclear free world.

Officials in the Pentagon and elsewhere have pushed back against Obama administration proposals to cut the number of weapons and narrow their mission, according to U.S. officials and outsiders who have been briefed on the process.

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In turn, White House officials, unhappy with early Pentagon-led drafts of the blueprint known as the Nuclear Posture Review, have stepped up their involvement in the deliberations and ordered that the document reflect Obama's preference for sweeping change, according to the U.S. officials and others, who described discussions on condition of anonymity because of their sensitivity and secrecy.

The Pentagon has stressed the importance of continued U.S. deterrence, an objective Obama has said he agrees with. But a senior Defense official acknowledged in an interview that some officials are concerned that the administration may be going too far. He described the debate as "spirited. . . . I think we have every possible point of view in the world represented."

The debate represents another collision between Obama's administration and key parts of the national security establishment, after scrapes over troop levels in Afghanistan and missile defenses in Eastern Europe.

But more than those issues, the future of U.S. nuclear weapons policy is directly tied to a series of initiatives Obama has advanced as a prime goal of his presidency.

"This is the first test of Obama's nuclear commitments," said former U.S. Ambassador Nancy E. Soderberg, who held senior foreign policy positions in the Clinton administration. "They can't afford to fall short at the outset."

Read the whole thing. It's not realistic for the US to totally give up its nuclear arsenal. It may not be realistic to give up a significant portion of it either. If the West gives up its nuclear weapons, only terrorists would have them, which would be far worse than the current situation.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:19 AM