Obama: Nix Nukes Now

By GottaLaff

How many times can I thank President Obama?

Dear Prez, thank you... again. Redundantly yours, Laffy

President Obama is preparing to move ahead with the most ambitious arms-control agenda in decades, calling for dramatic cuts in US and Russian arsenals, a halt to the Bush administration's plan for a more advanced nuclear warhead, and the ratification of a global treaty banning underground nuclear tests.

Obama's agenda, posted on the White House website shortly after his inauguration and outlined by several top officials, also includes a worldwide ban on the production of nuclear weapons material - leading to what the administration calls "a world without nuclear weapons."

The new administration's goal of starting down what it calls the "long road" toward total elimination of nuclear weapons represents perhaps its most striking foreign-policy departure from the Bush administration, which expressed widespread skepticism about arms-control treaties and pulled out of the anti-ballistic missile pact with Russia. [...]

Their vision for a nuclear-free world is predicated on the view that the United States - the only country to ever use a nuclear weapon, to help bring an end to war with Japan in 1945 - must lead by example in reducing nuclear arms.

Without America taking the first step, they say, other nuclear powers will be too slow to reduce their arsenals, increasing the likelihood that terrorists will obtain a nuclear bomb.

Many arms control advocates and top government officials believe there is a historic opportunity to implement the first steps on the vision laid out by the four former officials. [...]

Backers of the president's agenda warned it won't be easy to convince Congress, the international community, and the national security apparatus.

"It is going to require a herculean effort," said Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to halting the spread of nuclear weapons. "It is completely doable, but it will require the sustained attention of the president himself."

If there's one thing Prez O is good at, it's sustained attention. He focuses better than Rich Lowry at a Sarah Palin speech.

There is much more to this article. Here's the link.