PRAGUE – Declaring the future of mankind at stake, President Obama on Sunday said all nations must strive to rid the world of nuclear arms and that the U.S. had a “moral responsibility” to lead because no other country has used one.
A North Korean rocket launch upstaged Obama’s idealistic call to action, delivered in the capital of the Czech Republic, a former satellite of the Soviet Union. But Obama dismissed those who say the spread of nuclear weapons, “the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War,” cannot be checked.
“This goal will not be reached quickly – perhaps not in my lifetime,” he told a cheering crowd of more than 20,000 in the historic square outside the Prague Castle gates. We “must ignore the voices who tell us that the world cannot change. We have to insist, ‘Yes, we can.’ ”
Few experts think it’s possible to completely eradicate nuclear weapons, and many say it wouldn’t be a good idea even if it could be done. Even backward nations such as North Korea have shown they can develop bombs, given enough time.
But a program to drastically cut the world atomic arsenal carries support from scientists and lions of the foreign policy world.
The nuclear-free cause is more potent in Europe than in the United States, where even Democratic politicians such as Obama must avoid being labeled as soft or naive if they endorse it.
Still, Obama said he would resubmit a proposed Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to the Senate for ratification. The pact was signed by President Clinton but rejected by the Senate in 1999.