Obama Faces Opposition From Pentagon On Nuclear Disarmament

LA Times:

President Obama's ambitious plan to begin phasing out nuclear weapons has run up against powerful resistance from officials in the Pentagon and other U.S. agencies, posing a threat to one of his most important foreign policy initiatives.

Obama laid out his vision of a nuclear-free world in a speech in Prague, Czech Republic, last April, pledging that the U.S. would take dramatic steps to lead the way. Nine months later, the administration is locked in internal debate over a top-secret policy blueprint for shrinking the U.S. nuclear arsenal and reducing the role of such weapons in America's military strategy and foreign policy.

Read the whole story: LA Times

Comments

[OldHick]

08:14 PM on 01/05/2010

Obama has already placed the military in serious jeopardy by forcing the diminishment of missiles, without which, ultimately, we have little defense.

Obams is not a realist, and we simply cannot totally disarm without self-destruction.

[GlenRast]

01:15 PM on 01/05/2010

Nuclear weapons are generals' Viagra. They get hard just thinking about them..

[bilmardre]

10:24 PM on 01/04/2010

Kool, top secret. What's it say?

[LittleMittens]

08:31 PM on 01/04/2010

Support disarmament!

[LittleMittens]

08:31 PM on 01/04/2010

Please, tell me one instance where a nuke stopped anyone from attacking anyone since 1948?

[OliverTwist]

10:42 PM on 01/04/2010

Very funny!

[poster1122]

04:04 AM on 01/06/2010

Well, they certainly kept NATO and the Warsaw Pact from going at it for half a century. Right now, no one is likely to attack North Korea because of its nukes. Iran has probably learned this lesson from watching the US policy differences between North Korea and Iraq.

India and Pakistan might be the only two nuclear powers where it might not deter a confrontation. Though, I think the odds are a lot brighter now that the Kargil incursion might end up being the last direct assault by either of these powers against the other. Certainly, before they both integrated nukes into their arsenals, wars between the two were almost givens. Now the stakes are much higher, and it seems both sides are more squeamish about the prospects.

[Tommygun264]

06:33 PM on 01/04/2010

But how can we keep the planet safe without the ability to destroy it several thousand times over?

[RockyMissouri]

05:46 PM on 01/04/2010

Support disarmament!!

[RockyMissouri]

05:44 PM on 01/04/2010

Support disarmament!!! Support disarmament!!!!

[RiceStarz]

05:23 PM on 01/04/2010

Sorry, one more. No faith in the intelligence of Americans as a collective could be Prez's downfall. Honesty and faith in the MSM as well.

[RiceStarz]

05:20 PM on 01/04/2010

One more then I must go. I can't take much more of this nonsense. I h8 the GOP for making me h8. h8 them in particular, but this site and the MSM are quickly rising in my stress meter and soon to be h8ted as well. Enough already. We are not as thick as they would like us to believe. I have faith, very much like wjat Prez has and which prompted him to run. Peple, we are better, smarter and far more patient than this. Don't let the MSM further r^iN America and our lives.

[RiceStarz]

05:16 PM on 01/04/2010

Blame lands squarely on Cheney, Bush and the GOP for these threatsagainst the USA. How possibly could it be their fault? Cheney, Rush and the MSM have been championing since day one when "That One" took office, that he could not protect us against terroristandsuch, because he proposed diplomacy in international relations, rather than just flinging political and actualbombs. Why if McCain and Palin had been elected, we could be in at least 2morewars by now, and showing that bullybully strength of America. Who needs diplomacy when you can have the strong leadership of ready2go2war Republicans

[RiceStarz]

05:08 PM on 01/04/2010

Prez faces opposition? Like from day one,what else is new save for the year.

[berrycooda]

04:44 PM on 01/04/2010

Good way to get rid of our "nukes"
Send them to Iran with a remote timer on them.

[GlenRast]

01:19 PM on 01/05/2010

And the radiation would just stay right in Iran right? DUH

[mendelcrosses]

02:44 PM on 01/04/2010

Isnt the pentagon a millitary institution? How come,they oppose or push-back on heirachy?

Sergents arent allowed to ask questions because of hierachy ,how come the pentagon officials who are all under the commander-in-chief on the heirachy table be pushing back on the commander-in- chief?

[WilliamL]

07:37 PM on 01/05/2010

because things do not always opperate as it seems or as it says on paper.

as lovely as a nuclear free world would be, pushing it now is pissing in the wind.

focus on getting military ventures concluded and then maybe.

O does not have the juice on this level. his speech today lacked on so many levels.

it was as if he was doing nothing more than reading.

[StarDagger]

02:42 PM on 01/04/2010

Obama can push back with 3 words "You are Relieved!"

It is time the military realize that they are under civilian control.