By Tribune-Review

Published: Sunday, November 25, 2012, 8:56 p.m.
Updated: Tuesday, February 19, 2013

President Obama wants to reduce America's nuclear arsenal. That much is clear from his remarks in a May speech in Seoul, South Korea, when he said, “(W)e have more nuclear weapons than we need.”

How much he wants to reduce the country's nuclear weapons remains unclear, as his Nuclear Posture Review implementation study is months overdue, according to Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.

“No president has ever before held up a nuclear review for an election,” Rep. Turner writes for The Examiner of Washington.

And while the president obscures his goal of unilateral reductions — beyond what's called for under the New START treaty with Russia — just about every other nuclear state is taking the opposite course.

The U.S. remains the only nuclear power without a weapons-modernization program. Meanwhile China and Russia are updating their nuke arsenals, reminds The Heritage Foundation. And never mind the continuing threat from North Korea, which now boasts of having ballistic missiles that can reach the United States.

No nation has ever turned back foreign aggression by weakening itself. The safety and security long guaranteed by America's nuclear arsenal must not be diluted by the empty premise that if the U.S. disarms, so, too, will other nations with adversarial intentions.

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