PENTAGON PUSHBACK – AT 8:41 A.M. ET:  It was only a matter of time before elements of the Pentagon would start to push back against Obama's dicey nuclear disarmament dreams.  From the Los Angeles Times:

Pentagon officials have pushed back against the president's goals to shrink the U.S. stockpile and reduce the role of such weapons in foreign policy, sources say.

I would certainly hope so.  Reagan, ironically, was an arms controller.  The difference, of course, is that Reagan's theme, derived from a Russian proverb, was "trust, but verify."  I'm not so sure the Obama crowd caught the last two words.

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.

Officials in the Pentagon and elsewhere have pushed back against Obama administration proposals to cut the number of weapons and narrow their mission, according to U.S. officials and outsiders who have been briefed on the process.

COMMENT:  The first step in any arms reduction program would be for the president to authorize the Reliable Replacement Warhead program, which would replace our current arsenal with modern, more reliable nuclear warheads.  We are the only nuclear power, according to press reports, that has not recently modernized its arsenal.  Congress has been the impediment, and Obama has no enthusiasm for the program.

Once we have a modernized, reliable arsenal, we can consider some mutual reductions, as Reagan did, with verification every step of the way.  We could also work to reduce or eliminate entirely the chance of a nuclear war starting by accident, through a technical error or misunderstanding.

But the bottom line is that no arms control agreement will be worth much if rogue nations, like Iran, get the bomb.  Even if they signed some kind of reduction agreement, it's unlikely that they'd abide by it.  It is proliferation that is our greatest threat.  Iran is a test case.  If we can't stop Iran, there'll be a massive nuclear arms race in the Middle East, a region where rationality doesn't always rule the day.

January 4, 2009