The Obama Age of Proliferation: While the President Dreams, Nuclear Weapons Spread

‘We may no longer live in fear of global annihilation,” President Obama declared on Wednesday, “but so long as nuclear weapons exist, we are not truly safe.” He’s right about the last point, because even as the President offers new dreams of U.S. nuclear disarmament, the world is entering a new proliferation age.

Mr. Obama returned this week to Berlin to give his long-promised speech laying out his plans to rid the world of nuclear weapons. His idea is to remove those weapons initially and primarily from American hands. North Korea and Iran each got a single line in his speech, which is at least more than he gave to China, which is investing heavily in the world’s third largest nuclear arsenal. Nukes in the hands of terrorists? Mr. Obama said he’ll hold a summit on that one in 2016.

Give Mr. Obama points for consistency. Since his college days at Columbia in the 1980s, he has argued for American disarmament and arms-control treaties. When he last issued a call for a nuclear-free world on European soil four years ago in Prague, the Norwegian Nobel Committee rewarded him with a peace prize.

This week he announced that the U.S. could “maintain a strong and credible strategic deterrent” with a third fewer strategic nuclear weapons, or about 1,000 in all. He also called for “bold” cuts in tactical nukes in Europe without offering specifics, which suggests that was mostly for show.

He said he’ll work on reducing U.S. stockpiles through “negotiated cuts” with Russia. Whenever this Administration negotiates with Russia, beware. But there’s another danger. President Obama left the door open to unilateral U.S. reductions, possibly without Congressional approval.

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