The Obama administration has been playing it smart however, and with an addendum of the START treaty aimed specifically at Iran we can rest a little easier in the knowledge that our Homeland Security is intently watching over Iran. At the beginning of the Nuclear Summit in Washington, President obama opened with a new threat to our security, the threat of terrorist groups acquiring nuclear weapons. In the President's words, "Two decades after the end of the Cold War, we face a cruel irony of history: The risk of nuclear confrontation between nations has gone down, but the risk of nuclear attack has gone up."
During the first full day of the summit the President explained that terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda are actively seeking nuclear armaments and if they acquire them they are sure to use them.
The summit follows days of meetings between President Obama and other heads of nations discussing the threat of nuclear terrorism. In efforts to stem the ability of terrorist networks from obtaining nuclear arms from rogue states like Iran Obama is placing higher sanctions on Iran and encourages other nations to do the same. On last Monday the president met with Chinese President Hu Jintao to work out increased sanctions against Iran, China up until this point has been reluctant to sanction Iran, but after coming to understand the grave threat posed to international security by Iran's nuclear development program, they have agreed to lay heavier sanctions on the rogue state.
These sanctions combined with a declaration form Ukraine to be rid of their enriched uranium by 2012 are small steps towards President Obama's long term goal of a one day Nuclear weapon free world. And these are certainly big steps in reducing the threat of nuclear attack by terrorist networks.
I am thrilled to see that America and the Obama Administration are truly taking steps to not only protect our homeland security via disallowing countries like Iran and terrorist groups to get their hands on nuclear weapons (who will most likely find ways to use them or leverage them), but we area also moving in the direction towards a world free of nuclear armaments. If only the United States could tell the world, "We are ridding our country of all nuclear weapons" in hopes of leading the charge. Unfortunately, this would most likely lead to the US being exposed to a foreign attack, rather than making our world a safer place.
ReplyDeleteI would like to believe that Iran is pursuing nuclear technology purely for the sake of energy, but like you said, that is quite unlikely. If only there were a way to allow Iran to take advantage of nuclear energy without giving them the power to make nuclear weapons. Fortunately, our national security team is on top of all the developments in Iran.
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