[Peace-discuss] Slash nuclear weapons?

[C. G. Estabrook]

If an agreement is reached, each country will be able to destroy the world only 
two or three times, instead of ten or twelve.

Typical Obama gestural politics: he pointedly does not do what he could easily 
do, cancel the Polish/Czech missiles.  (Jenifer pointed out before the 
inauguration that this would be a test of the new administration's bona fides; 
they've failed.)  And the Russians took the first step, by suspending the 
deployment of Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad.

Remember that the US is bound by treaty to remove nuclear weapons from the ME, 
but it violates that commitment daily, with its own forces and those of Israel. 
By American law, all support must be removed from a country that produces 
nuclear weapons outside the limits of the NPT.  Israel has of course done so, 
massively and with US support, so the US is in the ridiculous position of not 
being able to admit that Israel has nuclear weapons.  --CGE


Brussel Morton K. wrote:
> This could lead to an important development…  --mkb
> 
> February 04 2009
> *President Obama seeks Russia deal to slash nuclear weapons*
> 
> The radical new treaty would reduce the number of nuclear warheads to 
> 1,000 each
> 
> By Tim Reid
> 
> President Obama will convene the most ambitious arms reduction talks 
> with Russia for a generation, aiming to slash each country’s stockpile 
> of nuclear weapons by 80 per cent.
> 
> The radical treaty would cut the number of nuclear warheads to 1,000 
> each, The Times has learnt. Key to the initiative is a review of the 
> Bush Administration’s plan for a US missile defence shield in Eastern 
> Europe, a project fiercely opposed by Moscow.
> 
> Mr Obama is to establish a non-proliferation office at the White House 
> to oversee the talks, expected to be headed by Gary Samore, a 
> non-proliferation negotiator in the Clinton Administration. The talks 
> will be driven by Hillary Clinton’s State Department.
> 
> No final decision on the defence shield has been taken by Mr Obama. Yet 
> merely delaying the placement of US missiles in Poland and a radar 
> station in the Czech Republic — which if deployed would cost the US $4 
> billion annually — removes what has been a major impediment to Russian 
> co-operation on arms reduction.
> 
> Any agreement would put pressure on Britain, which has 160 nuclear 
> warheads, and other nuclear powers to reduce their stockpiles.
> 
> Mr Obama has pledged to put nuclear weapons reduction at the heart of 
> his presidency and his first move will be to reopen talks with Moscow to 
> replace the 1991 US-Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start), 
> which expires in December. Under that pact, the two countries have cut 
> their respective stockpiles from roughly 10,000 to 5,000.
> 
> “We are going to re-engage Russia in a more traditional, legally binding 
> arms reduction process,” an official from the Administration said. “We 
> are prepared to engage in a broader dialogue with the Russians over 
> issues of concern to them. Nobody would be surprised if the number 
> reduced to the 1,000 mark for the post-Start treaty.”
> 
> Efforts to revive the Start talks were fitful under Mr Bush and 
> complicated by his insistence on building a missile defence shield. “If 
> Obama proceeds down this route, this will be a major departure,” one 
> Republican said. “But there will be trouble in Congress.”
> 
> The plan is also complicated by the nuclear ambitions of Iran, which 
> launched its first satellite into space yesterday, and North Korea, 
> which is preparing to test a long-range ballistic missile capable of 
> striking the US.
> 
> Mr Obama views the reduction of arms by the US and Russia as critical to 
> efforts to persuade countries such as Iran not to develop the Bomb.
> 
> Source: The Times of London 
> 
> 
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