At the same time, the administration announced, in its Nuclear Posture Review, that the U.S. will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. "This revised assurance is intended to underscore the security benefits of adhering to and fully complying with the NPT and persuade non-nuclear weapon states party to the Treaty to work with the United States and other interested parties to adopt effective measures to strengthen the non-proliferation regime."
So as Iran closes in on a nuclear weapon -- a result the administration has repeatedly declared to be "unacceptable" -- the administration is getting really serious by ... setting a good example. That's right. Last week, the State Department revealed the number of nuclear weapons in our arsenal (it used to be classified). "We think it is in our national security interest to be as transparent as we can be about the nuclear program of the United States," Secretary Clinton explained. "We think that builds confidence." Ah, but whose confidence?
Underlying all of these naive gestures is the belief that it is weapons that threaten the peace, not their owners.
But not even naivete can explain the administration's infatuation with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Last week, Obama agreed to join the other four permanent members of the Security Council in a statement calling for a "nuclear free Middle East" and urging Israel, Pakistan, and India to submit to the treaty's terms.
This is a fatuous distraction from the main issue -- Iran. It is also a transparent attempt to gang up on Israel (whose nuclear weapons, it is well known, serve only a defensive purpose). But above all, it ignores the glaring fact that the treaty has been a total failure. North Korea signed the treaty, flouted it, and then withdrew. India and Pakistan never signed it. Syria did, and Israel destroyed a secret nuclear reactor there in 2007. Iran signed it.
Speaking to the NPT Review Conference in New York on May 3, Obama said, "For four decades, the NPT has been the cornerstone of our collective efforts to prevent the proliferation of these weapons ... I therefore made it a priority of the United States to strengthen each of the treaty's key pillars."
In a child, naivete about world peace is understandable. In a leader, it is frightening.