I, too, dream of President Obama’s dream. A world free of war, WMDs, nuclear bombs, terrorism, and evildoers. A world where citizens live in harmony, no matter the skin color, personal wealth, intellectual capacity, nationality, or religious faith. A world filled with fairness and equality in all aspects of life.
Then I wake up. But only to find the president still in dreamland:
Discussing his approach to nuclear security the day before formally releasing his new strategy, Mr. Obama described his policy as part of a broader effort to edge the world toward making nuclear weapons obsolete, and to create incentives for countries to give up any nuclear ambitions. To set an example, the new strategy renounces the development of any new nuclear weapons, overruling the initial position of his own defense secretary.
Mr. Obama’s strategy is a sharp shift from those of his predecessors and seeks to revamp the nation’s nuclear posture for a new age in which rogue states and terrorist organizations are greater threats than traditional powers like Russia and China.
It eliminates much of the ambiguity that has deliberately existed in American nuclear policy since the opening days of the cold war. For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons or launched a crippling cyberattack.
Notice his emphasis on incentives, rewards, and setting an example. It’s as if he thinks the world is one giant parenting experiment, and countries like Iran, North Korea, and Cuba are young naughty children. His new limits on nuke use is equivalent to telling the world that the U.S. will not spank you if you behave poorly — all we’ll do is send you to a corner for timeout. Imagine how that tactic would’ve ended World War II.
As president of the United States, shouldn’t his number one priority be to protect the American people at all costs? This latest strategy seems to have undermined his oath to defend the country.
