No nukes is good nukes

One of the dumber things the United States has ever done was to engage in a nuclear weapons building contest with the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 80s. At a time when each country had more than 20,000 nuclear warheads on hand, each nation sought to build even more. Fortunately, the U.S.S.R. broke up, and more realistic leadership in the U.S. ended this race.

Unfortunately, in the last decade neither the president nor Congress has earnestly tried to bring about a more peaceful world by negotiating treaties with other countries, that would lessen the danger that there will be multiple Hiroshimas in the future.

That is until last week. Then, on April 5 in Prague, Czech Republic, President Obama announced his goal of a nuclear free world. While this is commendable, his announced steps in that direction are the most important part of his speech.

Specifically, Obama said he would resubmit to the U.S. Senate the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. If passed by the Senate, the U.S. and other nations that have signed the treaty would be able to develop new nuclear weapons in theory, but not test them in space or underground. WAO believes this treaty is a major step in the right direction.

Obama also said he will negotiate a new Strategic Arms Reduction treaty with the Russians. Non one can say what that treaty might contain, but even the fact that we are talking with the Russians about arms reductions is good.

WAO doubts that we will ever again see a nuclear free world, but it has hopes of greatly reducing the threat that nuclear weapons will be used.

WAO hopes every reader will give his/her support to Obama’s efforts to contain nuclear weapons.