Pirate's Cove

It’s a lofty goal, and one worth persuing. He tells us all about it in the Washington Post

Of all the threats to global security and peace, the most dangerous is the proliferation and potential use of nuclear weapons. That’s why, seven years ago in Prague, I committed the United States to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and to seeking a world without them. This vision builds on the policies of presidents before me, Democrat and Republican, including Ronald Reagan, who said “we seek the total elimination one day of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth.”

Wait, I thought the most dangerous threat was ‘climate change’? He’s told us it’s more dangerous than terrorism at least 22 times. He told us that ‘climate change’ is the world’s most dangerous threat in his 2015 State of the Union. The same when he unveiled his screw the middle and lower classes energy plan, er, Clean Power Plan, last summer.

Anyhow, he made this commitment 7 years ago. Has he done anything to build on this vision?

Thursday in Washington, I’ll welcome more than 50 world leaders to our fourth Nuclear Security Summit to advance a central pillar of our Prague Agenda: preventing terrorists from obtaining and using a nuclear weapon. We’ll review our progress, such as successfully ridding more than a dozen countries of highly enriched uranium and plutonium. Nations, including the United States, will make new commitments, and we’ll continue strengthening the international treaties and institutions that underpin nuclear security.

So, he and others have supposedly done a little bit.

First, we’re taking concrete steps toward a world without nuclear weapons. The United States and Russia remain on track to meet our New START Treaty obligations so that by 2018 the number of deployed American and Russian nuclear warheads will be at their lowest levels since the 1950s. Even as the United States maintains a safe, secure and effective nuclear arsenal to deter any adversary and ensure the security of our allies, I’ve reduced the number and role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy. I also have ruled out developing new nuclear warheads and narrowed the contingencies under which the United States would ever use or threaten to use nuclear weapons.

Raise your hand if you think Russia is cheating. Here’s where it becomes an absolute joke

Second, we’re strengthening the global regime — including the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty — that prevents the spread of nuclear weapons. We’ve succeeded in uniting the international community against the spread of nuclear weapons, notably in Iran. A nuclear-armed Iran would have constituted an unacceptable threat to our national security and that of our allies and partners. It could have triggered a nuclear arms race in the Middle East and begun to unravel the global nonproliferation regime.

In fact, it is triggering a nuclear arms race, as other Middle Eastern nations are looking to develop their own weapons, since the Iran deal simply limits Iran to not develop nuclear weapons for 8-10 years. The deal kicks the can down the road for Other People to deal with, and, really, Iran hasn’t seemed to care much about sticking with either the deal nor the U.N. sanctions, even as the deal was being signed.

He ends thusly (after admitting that Russia is cheating)

We’re clear-eyed about the high hurdles ahead, but I believe that we must never resign ourselves to the fatalism that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable. Even as we deal with the realities of the world as it is, we must continue to strive for our vision of the world as it ought to be.

Which begs the question: why did he sign a deal that doesn’t stop Iran’s nuclear weapons threat, just postpones it, if he is so worried? He should be lauded for having this vision of a world without nuclear weapons, and even attempting to act on it, even though the “genie is out of the bottle”. Reducing and even eliminating proliferation is a worthwhile goal. Yet, he helped out his buddies in Iran in so many ways, and has made the world more dangerous.

Crossed at Right Wing News.