Echoing Ronald Reagan, President Obama calls for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Even as a North Korean rocket launch upstaged his ambitious, if not realistic, call to action in the heart of Eastern Europe, Obama dismissed those who say the spread of nuclear weapons cannot be checked.
“This fatalism is a deadly adversary,” he told a crowd of more than 20,000 in an old square outside the Prague Castle gates. “For if we believe that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable, then we are admitting to ourselves that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable.”
Calling nuclear arms “the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War,” Obama appealed to anti-nuclear activists in the United States and abroad while taking care to promise that America’s national security would not be compromised.
He chose as the venue for his address a nation that peacefully threw off communism and helped topple nuclear power Soviet Union. “Let us honor our past,” Obama said, “by reaching for a better future.”
Somehow I suspect that Reagan’s devotees will see this as a sign of weakness.
Yeah, the Reich-wing is already complaining about this one. I guess some people are overly impressed by symbols of power, and nukes kind of fit into that.
I got a question the other day from someone I know who is a Republican having to do with “electro-magnetic-pulse”. Apparently some on the reich are trying to scare people by suggesting that Iran might not only develop nukes, but ICBMs as well, and that they would use them to try and take out our whole society.
said that Obama could have used “pulse weapons” or some such idiotic twaddle to destroy the missile on the launch pad. Unbelievable. These guys have this American hegemony thing, and believe that we can and must exert our power wherever we wish.
Obama wants to ban nuclear weapons? Good. Let the one with the most nuclear weapons be the first to destroy them. And let’s begin by getting real about which country is REALLY the one causing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East – you know, the only one that actually HAS them, and has threatened to use them even as it coyly pretended not to possess them?
Helen Thomas redux. Haha.
I think this is a good idea on the part of the President. Now when he kills missile defense and unilaterally begins dismantling the stockpiles, I’ll be happy.
Hey, if I have a hero, Helen Thomas is it!
10 year or 20 year program to de-nuke?
sure.. this is nothing but some posturing to our Euro friends more serious about disarming than we are.. and probably a bit nervous about Russia..
“For if we believe that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable, then we are admitting to ourselves that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable.”
That’s a hell of a thought. I don’t believe I’ve ever looked at it in quite that light before. Nice to have a president who can do that to you every now and then.
Yeah, but will he put his actions where his mouth is?
Khamenei had it right. Nice words, but what counts is what you do, so let’s see what you are going to do and judge by that.