by CKR
Max Kampelman, an arms control negotiator for Ronald Reagan, says
have never been more worried about the future for my children and grandchildren than I am today. The number of countries possessing nuclear arms is increasing, and terrorists are poised to master nuclear technology with the objective of using those deadly arms against us.The United States must face this reality head on and undertake decisive steps to prevent catastrophe. Only we can exercise the constructive leadership necessary to address the nuclear threat.
Kampelman bravely puts his qualifications as an arms control negotiator in the first paragraph of his op-ed. Arms control are considered dirty words in Washington today. The rationale hasn't been clear to me; it seems to bounce around. We don't need arms control with Russia because we are no longer enemies. We don't need arms control with India because they're a "responsible state with advanced nuclear technology." We don't need arms control with others because we're the biggest, baddest guys on the block.
George Bush likes to think of himself as Reaganesque. But Reagan had a vision, and he had a way toward that vision. He used the expertise of people like Kampelman to lay out the path. He used the vision and the path to urge, cajole, press, and work with Mikhail Gorbachev to bring about a peaceful end to the Cold War.
Reagan also had a sense of humor, and he was able to bob and weave with both Washington and international politics.
What is missing today from American foreign policy is a willingness to hold these two thoughts simultaneously, to find a way to move from what "is" — a world with a risk of increasing global disaster — to what "ought" to be, a peaceful, civilized world free of weapons of mass destruction.
Helmut observed that humor enables us to hold two thoughts in our head at the same time, while fundamentalism of various stripes sticks to its singlemindedness. Have we seen George Bush laugh at himself lately? Or laugh at all, beyond that putdown snicker?
To this end, President Bush should consult with our allies, appear before the United Nations General Assembly and call for a resolution embracing the objective of eliminating all weapons of mass destruction.He should make clear that we are prepared to eliminate our nuclear weapons if the Security Council develops an effective regime to guarantee total conformity with a universal commitment to eliminate all nuclear arms and reaffirm the existing conventions covering chemical and biological weapons.
The council should be assigned the task of establishing effective political and technical procedures for achieving this goal, including both stringent verification and severe penalties to prevent cheating.
I am under no illusion that this will be easy. That said, the United States would bring to this endeavor decades of relevant experience, new technologies and the urgency of self-preservation. The necessary technical solutions can be devised. Now, as I can imagine President Reagan saying, let us summon the will.
And that will make us far safer than all the bluster, bunker busters, and robust replacement warheads we can imagine.