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White House drive for ‘nuclear zero’ imperils the worldPresident Obama is working to realize the leftist dream of unilateral nuclear disarmament. This will leave the United States pitifully weak and create conditions for catastrophic deterrence failure. The White House has told the Pentagon to study options for reducing the number of U.S. nuclear warheads by as much as 80 percent. The future nuclear force could have as few as 300 weapons, far below the cuts to 1,550 required by the START 2 nuclear treaty with Russia. It would give America an arsenal about the size of France's Force de Frappe...

National Security: The commander in chief who once pined for a world without nuclear weapons has decided a world without an American deterrent is a good start, seeking to cut the U.S. arsenal by 80%. In a world where rogue states with unstable leadership are either in possession of or pursuing nuclear weapons, and with Russia rearming and China emerging as a world military and nuclear superpower, President Obama has ordered the Pentagon to consider cutting U.S. strategic nuclear forces to as few as 300 deployed warheads — below the number believed to be in China's arsenal and far fewer...

Appeasement: From ObamaCare to recess appointments, honoring the Constitution has not been an administration hallmark. But when it comes to betraying secrets to mollify the Russians, it becomes a document the president hides behind. It was bad enough that the 2012 defense authorization bill signed by President Obama set America on a downward spiral of military mediocrity. He also issued a signing statement, something he once opposed, saying that language in the bill aimed at protecting top-secret technical data on the U.S. Standard Missile-3 — linchpin of our missile defense — might impinge on his constitutional foreign-policy authority. Section 1227...

Defense: The administration announces a leaner version of our military involving the cutting of tens of thousands of ground troops as a leading defense contractor closes a major plant due to budget cuts. In an unusual appearance at the Pentagon on Thursday, President Obama laid out his plans for a "leaner" military based on the need "to renew our economic strength here at home, which is the foundation of our strength in the world." In other words, failed domestic policies require us to cut our military in a dangerous world. Obama insisted that even after the currently budgeted $460 billion...

National Security: Portrayed as just a shuffling of priorities, the president's defense cuts reduce our two-war strategy to maybe one war and cross your fingers. Champagne corks are popping from Beijing to Tehran. Imagine a scenario in the not-too-distant future when an Iranian Shahab missile mated with an unexpectedly ready nuclear warhead is test-fired and detonates somewhere over the Indian Ocean. The next day Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz as China announces a blockade of Taiwan. The administration's defense cuts, or shifts in priorities as President Obama would have us believe, leaves us woefully unprepared for the unexpected in...

Gun turn-in programs (“Annual gun swap hits its mark,” Local, Dec. 20) are the first step to disarm the citizens of the United States. They are designed to desensitize people to the action of giving up our arms at the request of the government. The Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment in recognition of the God-given right to a person’s self-defense. As they had just fought a war against a tyrant, they recognized the need for every citizen to have the means to defend himself against criminals both local and governmental. Presently there is a modicum of respect (fear) of...

"The last of the nation's most powerful nuclear bombs — a weapon hundreds of times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima — is being disassembled nearly half a century after it was put into service at the height of the Cold War. The final components of the B53 bomb will be broken down Tuesday at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, the nation's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. The completion of the dismantling program is a year ahead of schedule, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, and aligns with President Barack Obama's goal...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday North Korea poses a threat to U.S. and South Korean security and it faces a choice between accepting international demands it scrap its nuclear arms or facing deeper isolation. "North Korea continues to pose a direct threat to the security of both our nations," Obama said at a White House news conference with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Myung-bak. "The choice is clear for North Korea: If Pyongyang continues to ignore its international obligations, it will invite even more pressure and isolation. If the North abandons its quest for nuclear weapons...

There is a risk of a radioactive leak after a blast at the southern French nuclear plant of Marcoule, media reports say. One person was killed and three were injured in the explosion, following a fire in a storage site for radioactive waste, Le Figaro newspaper said. The plant is in the Gard region. It is a major site involved with the decommissioning of nuclear facilities, and operates a pressurised water reactor used to produce tritium.

This law be the result of a transparent, ample, and profound discussion by Venezuelan society, explained United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) lawmaker Freddy Bernal, president of the National Assembly’s bi-partisan commission established to draft the Law of Firearms Control and Disarmament. Alfredo Roberto Missair, United Nations representative in Venezuela, (the law) “is a fundamental aspect of (guaranteeing) Human Rights” in Venezuela because a policy of disarmament “looks to protect the rights of all citizens, regardless of age, sex, or social condition.” The law, not expected to be passed until sometime next year, (will) include the Law of Disarmament, the...

The Supreme Court recently granted certiorari in Millender v. Los Angeles. Here are the background facts: Bowen shoots at his ex-girlfriend with a sawed-off shotgun. The police obtain a search warrant for the home of Bowen’s 73-year-old former foster mother. The warrant application does not disclose that Bowen last lived with his foster mother 15 years ago. (The girlfriend suggested to the police that Bowen might be hiding there.) The warrant authorizes the seizure of all firearms on the premises, not merely the particular gun which had been used in the crime against the girlfriend. The police executed a 5...

SKOLKOVO, Russia (AFP) – President Dmitry Medvedev warned Wednesday Russia could pull out a new nuclear disarmament treaty and enter a new Cold War with the West if the two sides failed to agree on a new missile defence shield. Medvedev told reporters that the United States' decision to push ahead with the European shield despite Russia's objections will force Moscow "to take response measures -- something that we would very much rather not do."

Defense: As Russia invests in new weapons and China increases military spending by double digits, the administration conducts a new review looking to cut our nuclear arsenal even beyond misguided treaty obligations. The F-15 Eagle that lay smoldering in the Libyan desert was downed not by hostile fire but by "mechanical failure." It's a perfect metaphor for the current administration's downgrading of national defense from a constitutional imperative to an optional budget item. The F-22 Raptor was designed to replace our aging F-15 fleet, which is older than the pilots who fly them and whose wings are almost literally falling...

Supremacy: As Beijing resumes double-digit increases in military spending, a leading think tank projects China will achieve military parity in less than a generation. We'd better practice our bows. Back in 1907, President Teddy Roosevelt sent what became known as the Great White Fleet on a worldwide excursion that lasted almost 14 months. Four U.S. naval squadrons, consisting of four battleships each and their escorts, demonstrated America's arrival as a great power that would soon pass Britain as ruler of the waves. Then, the passing of the torch from one great power to another was peacefully presaged by a seemingly...

Postscript on New START The Senate was misinformed about the nuclear treaty. In December of 2010, the Senate offered its advice and consent for the New START treaty. The debate over New START had been contentious, and the treaty finally passed the Senate with more votes against it than any other nuclear treaty the Senate has approved. The Russian Duma (parliament) is now in the process of approving the treaty (there has never been any serious doubt that it would). With New START essentially in hand, arms-control proponents in Washington already are gearing up with numerous exciting seminars and conferences...

Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton appeared with Tucker Carlson last night on Hannity to discuss his strong disapproval of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). Bolton believed the ripple effects of the treaty would cost America “for years to come” and Tucker even described alleged liberal rationale for the treaty as “grotesque.” The START treaty, if ultimately ratified by the Russian parliament, would require the drawing down of nuclear warheads of both the U.S. and Russia over the next seven years from current levels of 2,200 each to 1,550. Tucker was first annoyed that Obama rushed the...

The New START treaty has just passed the Senate, 71 to 26. The treaty needed 67 votes for ratification. UPDATE: Thirteen Republicans voted to ratify the treaty: Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Bob Bennett (Utah), Scott Brown (Mass.), Thad Cochran (Miss.), Susan Collins (Maine), Bob Corker (Tenn.), Judd Gregg (N.H.), Johnny Isakson (Georgia), Mike Johanns (Nebraska), Richard Lugar (Indiana), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Olympia Snowe (Maine), and George Voinovich (Ohio).

Instead of pressuring reluctant Republican senators for rapid ratification of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia, the Obama administration should just drop it, says Richard Perle, a key architect of President Ronald Reagan’s strategy to end the Cold War. “It’s a seriously flawed treaty,” Perle, now a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, says during an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV. “It’s certainly not the kind of treaty Ronald Reagan fought for and accomplished.” The pact is very weak on verification, he says. “For example, our right to inspections is limited to sites the Russians declare . . ....

The Senate voted 67-28 to pass a cloture motion, seemingly enough to assure final ratification. Eleven Republicans joined with 56 Democrats to pass the cloture motion. It will take 67 votes to ratify the New Start pact, which would give the Obama administration its top foreign policy goal in the lame-duck session. Among Republicans announcing their support were Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, George V. Voinovich of Ohio, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker of Tennessee, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, and...

After years of debate and a fundraising campaign launched by investor Warren Buffett, the U.N. atomic agency decided Friday to set up a $150 million uranium fuel "bank" aimed at slowing the spread of dangerous nuclear material around the globe. The idea of such a bank has been floated for decades, but the concept took on new urgency with the development of Iran's nuclear program and the recent explosion of interest in nuclear energy. The bank would guarantee the sale of fuel for countries' nuclear power plants, theoretically eliminating their need to develop it themselves. The same centrifuges used to...

WASHINGTON – As the commanders of the Army, Air Force and Marines cautioned the U.S. Senate against abruptly repealing the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, critics are also warning that accepting open homosexuality and pro-homosexual "reprogramming" could drive massive numbers of troops out of the service.

Mr. King, whose program is carried on CNN’s channels around the world, has long had a reputation for softball questions. So Mr. Putin’s decision to appear on the program allowed his voice to be heard both in the United States and abroad while avoiding being challenged on contentious topics like his own grip on power and the limits on human rights and free speech in Russia. In the interview, Mr. Putin also warned that Russia would develop and deploy new nuclear weapons if the United States did not accept its proposals on integrating Russian and European missile defense forces —...

The options for dealing with North Korea from President Obama and the Washington foreign policy establishment have ranged from mediocre to bad. Securing a region vital to the United States, and protecting the freedom won at the cost of tends of thousands of American lives, can only be achieved in the long run by ending the North Korean regime. This can be done peacefully, but only if Washington gets its head in the game with better policies and tools to help the North Korean people liberate themselves. As with every other crisis in the two-year tenure of our president, the...

For help understanding the foreign policy headlines of the past few days, let's return, briefly, to the spring of 1983, when Barack Obama was a student at Columbia University. What were the burning international issues of that time? Well, first was the "nuclear freeze" movement, which was prompting mass demonstrations around the world by people worried about the standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States. Obama published an article about it in a campus magazine in which he invoked the vision of "a nuclear free world." The Middle East, meanwhile, was still reeling from the 1982 Israeli invasion...

DPRK And START Posted 07:00 PM ET Nuclear Threats: An artillery barrage targeting a South Korean island and the discovery of an operational uranium enrichment program beg the question — why the rush to abandon the means to stop Pyongyang? We can safely assume that President Obama's personal letter to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, delivered by administration special envoy Stephen Bosworth last December, has not had the desired effect. After its disclosure of an apparently operational uranium enrichment program, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea mounted an artillery barrage of the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong Island in...

You know you’re in trouble when you need Henry Kissinger to vouch for you. But there was the one formerly known as “The One” sitting at a table with a bunch of old, white, Republican dudes, choosing the most abstruse issue on the agenda for his moment to Man Up. With Republicans treating the president like a dirt sandwich and Democrats begging the president to throw a knuckle sandwich, Obama drew his line in the sand on telemetry. The Start arms treaty used to be a chance for American presidents to stare down the Russians. Now it’s a chance for...

President Barack Obama on Sunday hailed the prospect of a new settlement freeze in the disputed West Bank as a promising step toward peace, urging Israelis and Palestinians to get back into serious negotiations quickly. An upbeat president also pledged to return to the basic principles that drove his thinking when he first came to the White House, including sticking to a more bipartisan tone and better explaining his decisions to the American people. He spoke of moving from an "obsessive focus" on policy and making changes to his approach after a humbling midterm election. "The fact that we are...

I’m an optimist in general but a pessimist when it comes to nations’ shifting pursuit of their interests. Humans, not states, have consciences. President Barack Obama’s commitment in his 2009 Prague speech “to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons” was a fine sentiment but a political mistake. Visions are nice — Marx had one of classless societies. They can also be dangerous. Helmut Schmidt, the former German chancellor, famously remarked that people who have them should see a doctor. The danger was that Obama, very early in his presidency, would be perceived as weak or...

New York, NY - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met here, September 21, with 100 leaders and representatives of anti-war, labor, alternative media and Iranian and Palestinian solidarity organizations. Among the participants were Sarah Martin, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Margaret Sarfehjooy, board member of the Minneapolis-based Women Against Military Madness, former attorney general Ramsey Clark, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Sara Flounders from the International Action Center, Brian Becker of the ANSWER coalition, Ramona Africa of the Free Mumia Coalition and Amiri Baraka, poet and activist. The meeting was called by the president of Iran with the hope that a frank and...

In a move designed to boost his own bid for re-election, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced last week that he intends to attach a massive illegal alien amnesty bill to legislation authorizing funding of our military, known as the Defense Authorization bill, when the Senate considers it this week. The amendment Reid plans to offer is the DREAM Act, which would grant amnesty and costly education subsidies to millions of illegal aliens under the age of 35. Using a bill that authorizes funding for our military -- at a time when our troops are fighting in the Middle East...

Federal Spending: The secretary of defense announces that due to economic conditions, the military must be slashed by $100 billion. Since when did defending the United States become an optional budget item? As Chinese warships tour the Mediterranean and Iran adds four submarines to its navy, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced this week the closing of the Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) in Norfolk, Va., the first step toward finding $100 billion in savings over the next five years. The command was just formed in 1999 to improve the ability of the various services to work together and find efficiencies. It...

The Obama Administration is pushing for a nuclear-free world to prevent what happened in Japan from ever happening again.. A top Department of Defense official says the U.S. is committed to reducing nuclear weapons but will also counter any nuclear threats from terrorists. The Obama Administration says it will not be conducting underground nuclear tests or developing new nuclear warheads, because it does not want a repetition of what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

National Security: Think Moscow will violate the New START arms limitation treaty? A just-issued report says it never obeyed the first one. The motto of the Obama administration is blindly trust, don't verify and unilaterally disarm. You can forget about peace through strength, the Reagan doctrine that won the Cold War. Our policy is now peace through wishful thinking. If Neville Chamberlain and Jimmy Carter had a child, his name would be Barack Obama. The president is pushing ahead with what is called the New START Treaty to rid the world of nuclear weapons, but not those who would use...

THE DEPROLIFERATOR — Since the end of the Cold War, the circumstances under which a U.S. president might authorize the launch of nuclear weapons have changed. First, it bears mentioning that, even though he or she is always accompanied by the “nuclear football,”* a president’s ability to exercise complete command over the response to a nuclear attack has long been overrated. Back in 2004, Global Zero Co-Coordinator and President of the World Security Institute Bruce Blair wrote: . . . the president’s supporting command system is not actually geared to withhold retaliation in the event of enemy missile attack, real...

Commanders have ordered a U.S. military unit in Afghanistan to patrol with unloaded weapons, according to a source in Afghanistan. American soldiers in at least one unit have been ordered to conduct patrols without a round chambered in their weapons, an anonymous source stationed at a forward operating base in Afghanistan said in an interview. The source was unsure where the order originated or how many other units were affected. When a weapon has a loaded magazine, but the safety is on and no round is chambered, the military refers to this condition as “amber status.” Weapons on “red status”...

Military Advantage: Our defense secretary proposes doing what no other foreign adversary has done: sink the U.S. Navy. We don't need those billion-dollar destroyers, he says. Meanwhile, the Chinese navy rushes to fill the vacuum. Once Britannia ruled the waves, later to be replaced by America and its Navy. From the Battle of Midway to President Reagan's 600-ship fleet that helped win the Cold War, naval supremacy has been critical to the protection and survival of our nation. Which is why we find the recent remarks of Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the Navy League at the Sea-Air-Space expo so...

Defense: The administration proudly reveals a state secret to our enemies before a U.N. conference on nuclear nonproliferation. It wants to lead by example on disarmament, but Iran and North Korea aren't following. Not since the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact that sought to outlaw war as an instrument of national policy has there been such a stunning display of dangerous naivete. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton disclosed U.S. nuclear secrets to the U.N. conference while proudly proclaiming it showed America is sending "a clear, unmistakable signal" that this nation is committed to nuclear disarmament. Kellogg-Briand laid the groundwork for Munich in...

The US revealed the size of its nuclear arsenal last night in an unprecedented attempt to galvanise efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, announced the declassification of one of the Pentagon’s most closely guarded secrets at the opening day of a critical international meeting on global disarmament. The Pentagon’s figures show that the US stockpile consists of 5,113 nuclear warheads and “several thousand” more retired warheads that await dismantling. The figures reveal an 84 per cent reduction from the historic peak of 31,225 warheads in 1967 at the height of the...

The United States today for the first time since 1962 disclosed the size of its nuclear arsenal in what officials described as an as an unprecedented unveiling of a state secret and an attempt to encourage other countries to be open about their nuclear capabilities. The Pentagon announced the U.S. currently has 5,113 nuclear warheads in its stockpile – an 84 percent reduction from a peak of 31,255 warheads in 1967. "For those who doubt that the United States will do its part on disarmament, this is our record, these are our commitments, and they send a clear, unmistakable signal,"...

The Obama administration is likely to reveal a closely guarded secret -- the size of the U.S. nuclear stockpile -- during a critical meeting starting Monday at which Washington will try to strengthen the global treaty that curbs the spread of nuclear weapons, several officials said. The numbers could be released as soon as Monday, when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is to address the NPT Review Conference in New York, officials said. She will speak after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is likely to repeat his demands for more global controls over the stockpiles of the nuclear nations.

I’ve been thinking about President Obama’s foreign policy lately, but first, a golf tip: I went to Dave Pelz’s famous short-game school this winter to improve my putting and chipping, and a funny thing happened — my long game got better. It brings to mind something that happened to Obama. The president got health care reform passed, and it may turn out to be his single most important foreign policy achievement. In politics and diplomacy, success breeds authority and authority breeds more success. No one ever said it better than Osama bin Laden: “When people see a strong horse and...

Realpolitik: At the start of the Nuclear Security Summit, we see an all-too-familiar gesture from our president. Is it a matter of courtesy, an idiosyncrasy or the administration's acceptance of a new world order? If there ever was an iconic tribute to the idea of U.S. exceptionalism, it was the fact that the American flag was never dipped during the parade of athletes at the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. We never dipped or bowed to anybody, with the possible exception of figurehead royalty.

Since taking office on January 20, 2009, President Obama has engaged in one form of incremental surrender and betrayal after another, letting our allies know the United States is not to be trusted to protect them and our enemies know they need only wait for our troops to depart. The latest tiny surrender was Obama’s pledge that the United States will not use nuclear weapons against none-nuclear countries no matter what weapons they choose to use against us. In plain terms, our nuclear weapons may well be the only thing restraining the bad intentions of any number of despots worldwide....

WMD: With 47 top-ranking attendees, this week's "nuclear summit" is the biggest confab of heads of state convened by a president of the United States since 1945. It is also perfectly worthless. There's no deep, dark secret behind the Obama administration's strategy in defending America against nuclear aggressors, whether they be rogue powers like Iran or North Korea, or a terrorist group like al-Qaida. Both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made it very clear on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that the policy is the moral force of the U.S. disarming itself. According...

Sarah Palin, speaking before the Southern Republican Leadership Conference on April 9th, continued what is starting to be referred to as the Sarah Palin/Barack Obama nuclear war. The speech brought the audience to its feet several times. Sarah Palin had launched the first strike Wednesday on the Sean Hannity Show when she criticized President Obama's nuclear policy by stating that the revamped nuclear strategy, saying it was like a child in a playground who says 'punch me in the face, I'm not going to retaliate." The next day, President Obama replied, "I really have no response to that. The last...

If any nation wants to attack the United States with chemical, biological or electromagnetic pulse weapons, it need not fear nuclear retaliation as long as it has no nuclear weapons and abides by the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Obama has announced. So, as New Yorkers are coughing their lungs out from mustard gas or dying in the streets of biological weapons, they will know that their government will not use nuclear weapons to retaliate against their murderers. In effect, Obama has said if you are a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and do not have nuclear weapons, we will not hit you...

The United States announced this week a new strategic policy for its nuclear weapons that puts unprecedented emphasis on the nuclear threat from terrorists and rogue states, as opposed to traditional nuclear powers like Russia and China. Some analysts see the new policy as an important step in meeting the changing international situation. But critics call the move reckless and irresponsible. The Nuclear Posture Review - the third since the end of the Cold War - limits the circumstances under which the United States would use nuclear weapons, with a long-term goal of achieving a nuclear-free world. The Obama administration's...

In Prague on Thursday our president gave up something without receiving anything in return. For five decades during the Cold War, America’s nuclear arsenal helped keep the peace with the Soviet Union. “Mutually Assured Destruction” aka MAD was mocked in films like “Dr. Strangelove,” “On the Beach” and “Fail safe,” but it worked. That’s because it served as a credible deterrent. The Soviets knew that if they attacked us, we would retaliate with superior and devastating force. In what could be the ultimate in Kumbayah wishful thinking, President Obama has said he won’t attack countries without nuclear weapons if they...