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Sunday, April 3, 2016

Obama's Nuclear Summit

This past week, president Obama held a nuclear summit in Washington.  The group was supposed to discuss and take steps to control the spread of nuclear weapons.  I don't know if they actually discussed that subject, but they certainly took no steps that might control such weapons.  Indeed, if you think about it, Obama's efforts to control the spread of nukes have been futile at best and counter-productive at worst.

1.  The big story, of course, is Iran.  The Iranians were subjected to sanctions that were actually hurting the Iranian economy.  The mullahs never stopped enriching uranium to weapons grade, however.  Indeed, that enriched uranium has no use other than as an ingredient in nuclear weapons.  Steps could have been taken over the years that would have ended the Iranian program, but that would have required action by the USA to take out the Iranian installations or some cooperative effort of that sort with other countries like Saudi Arabia, Israel, the UK etc.  Obama had no stomach for that.  Instead, we got the Iranian nuclear deal.  That gave Iran 150 billion dollars and the blessing to continue to enrich uranium.  In ten years, all meaningful limitations are gone, so Iran will be able to have nukes at that point. 

At the summit, Obama reported on what a major "success" he had with the Iran deal.  Obama's success likely guarantees a future nuclear war involving Iran.

2.  The next item that should have been discussed at the summit is the Russian nuclear arsenal.  Russia has now enlarged that arsenal in violation of the arms control treaty it negotiated with Obama.  The Russians have seen how Obama reacts to such moves.  He will first deny that there has been a violation.  Next there will be concessions.  Finally he will reach a new agreement that allows higher numbers of Russian nukes, and maybe he will give some cash to the Russians to boot.

3.  Then there's the problem of North Korea.  They did mention the NKs at the summit.  Nothing was done, however, to limit the actions of the nut job who runs that country.

The truth is that the nuclear summit was just for show.  Obama wants to be seen as working on arms control.  He doesn't care, however, to actually accomplish anything.

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