Nuclear Disarmament: You Go First

I spotted this story earlier today and if I wasn't, you know, working, I would have gone ahead and seen this speech live at Depaul University.That said, I would like to introduce guest commentator Todd Anthony, of Twin Cities Conservative, with his thoughts which I have cross posted here...This article is typical of the unreal, utopian message to which the Left espouses.How are we supposed to take the Left seriously, when they’re not dealing with a full deck? They live in a world where ultra-violent Islamofascists are subject to negotiation and appeasement, where Judeo-Christianity is the TRUE enemy in our country.In this report, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama proposed eliminating all nuclear weapons, including the American nuclear stockpile. Here’s the primary issue that I’m sure most of you can identify: he assumes that rogue nations currently developing a clandestine nuclear program (see: North Korea and Iran) can be counted on to willfully disarm (i.e in good faith).Is anyone surprised that the Democrats assume we can negotiate with despotic regimes? This is the same group of people that believed negotiations with Hitler would prove to be more fruitful. This is the same group that believes our exit from Iraq will magically halt all terrorist attacks against American citizens and interests within our borders and abroad.Note the following points:“In his speech, Senator Obama asserted that the US should not threaten terrorist training camps with nuclear weapons.”Naturally, this comment is indicative of the anti-American rhetoric uttered from the Left. Along the same lines as the defeatist language expressed by the Democrats regarding Iraq, the message that terrorists hear is this: 1.) attack us with WMD, our response will be weak and timid; 2.) wait us out by (insert deadline); 3.) it’s our fault that you’re angry and violent.“Senator Obama called for a combination of diplomacy and pressure to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and to eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.”Two words: wishful thinking. Obama and his Leftist ilk are under the delusion that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jung Il are trustworthy partners. How many times, for example, did the North Koreans renege on nuclear proliferation deals since the 1994 deal brokered by President Clinton and Secretary of State Albright?Basically, Obama’s message is more of the same: America is bad. We’re the sole cause of anger in the Muslim world. Furthermore, we’re emasculating ourselves; this is akin to the gun dilemma in our country. The Democrats wish to strip all gun owners of their weapons, thinking this is the magic cure for gun violence. Yet, who will have guns? The criminals…The same logic applies here; if a terrorist outfit wishes to use a nuclear device against an American interest, Israel, or God Forbid, within our borders, what’s to stop that group?Nothing…Here’s the complete article:Obama seeks world nuclear banJeff ZelenyOctober 3, 2007PRESIDENTIAL hopeful Barack Obama overnight proposed eliminating all nuclear weapons, saying the US should greatly reduce its stockpiles to lower the threat of nuclear terrorism.In a speech in Chicago that was due to have been delivered early today, Senator Obama was to add his voice to a plan endorsed this year by a bipartisan group of former government officials from the Cold War era, who say the US must begin building a world consensus to reverse a reliance on nuclear weapons.Senator Obama, according to details provided by his campaign, was to call for vigorous diplomatic efforts aimed at a world ban on the development, production and deployment of intermediate-range missiles."In 2009, we will have a window of opportunity to renew our global leadership and bring our nation together," according to an excerpt of his remarks."If we don't seize that moment, we may not get another."The Bush Administration has tripled the rate of dismantling nuclear weapons in the past year, putting it on track to halve US stockpiles by 2012.The number of weapons being dismantled, like the overall stockpile, was secret, but the total number of American nuclear weapons would be at its lowest since Dwight Eisenhower was president from 1953 to 1961.Under a 2002 treaty, the US and Russia agreed to limit operational nuclear weapons to between 1700 and 2200 by 2012.Senator Obama is seeking to draw attention to his foreign policy views with the approach of the fifth anniversary of the congressional vote authorising military action in Iraq.Senator Obama, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, often tells voters the Iraq war has consumed foreign policy to the detriment of its ability to tackle other threats to the US.In his speech, Senator Obama asserted that the US should not threaten terrorist training camps with nuclear weapons.If elected, he said, he would lead a world effort to secure nuclear weapons and material at vulnerable sites in four years.He pledged to end production of fissile material for weapons, agreed not to build new weapons and remove any remaining nuclear weapons from hair-trigger alert.Senator Obama called for a combination of diplomacy and pressure to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and to eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.Senator Obama is endorsing a call for "urgent new actions" to prevent a new nuclear era, which was laid out in January in a commentary in The Wall Street Journal by several former government officials.The authors of the article were George Shultz, secretary of state in the Reagan administration; Henry Kissinger, secretary of state in the Nixon and Ford administrations; William Perry, secretary of defence in the Clinton administration; and Sam Nunn, a former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.