Nuclear weapons-free world: a vision of Kennedy, Reagan, Obama

[babylonsister]

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2010/0326/Nuclear-weapons-free-world-a-vision-of-Kennedy-Reagan-Obama

Nuclear weapons-free world: a vision of Kennedy, Reagan, Obama

Presidents Kennedy, Reagan, and now, Obama all envisioned a world free of nuclear weapons. The US-Russian START accord, announced Friday, is a next step in that direction, experts say.


By Howard LaFranchi, Staff writer / March 26, 2010
Washington


US-Russia agreement on a new treaty to reduce nuclear weapons is being hailed as President Obama’s first real foreign-policy victory and a personal triumph for a leader who envisions a nuclear-weapons-free world.

But that vision stretches back at least as far as President John Kennedy, and actually came tantalizingly close to fruition under President Ronald Reagan.

Indeed, many nuclear disarmament advocates share a sense that the treaty Mr. Obama announced Friday is the first step of many toward a nuclear-free world, given the long-standing and “centrist” support behind nuclear-weapons reduction and elimination.

snip//

Several Republican senators, including John Kyl of Arizona and minority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, had said previously that ratification would fail if the new treaty contained limits on US missile defense programs. The Obama administration has said it does not. (President Obama had already announced modifications to Bush-era missile defense plans that addressed a number of Russia's concerns.)

The biggest threat to the treaty, and the larger goal of a no-nukes world, may be those who argue that it is too pie-in-the-sky for a world of multiple nuclear powers and nuclear wannabes – including the likes of Iran and North Korea.

“There’ll be some opposition from the nuclear hawks, but the real resistance is going to come from the cynics who have no particular interest in nuclear weapons but who believe eliminating them is undesirable or unrealistic or can’t be done by this administration,” Cirincione says. “That kind of cynicism could be quite crippling.”

[TomCADem]

1. Well, John Kyl Has Already Been Expressing Some Opposition To The Treaty

I am sure the talking points will start that any treaty with the Russions leaves us defenseless.

[S_E_Fudd]

2. My guess

Collins, Snowe, Voinovich, Brown, Lugar, Graham, Lieberman, Alexander, Murkowski...


But we may find Repubs are in no mood for another knock down drag out fight