When It Comes To Nuclear Negotiations, President Obama Is No President Reagan

U.S. president Ronald Reagan (left) and General Secretary of the Central Committee of CPSU Mikhail Gorbachev at the joint meeting exchanging ratification instruments on bringing into force Soviet-American treaty on elimination of medium and short range missiles, Vladimirsky hall, the Grand Kremlin palace.(RIA Novosti / Yuryi Abramochkin)

Robert Joseph & Eric Edelman, NRO: Here’s the Difference Between How Obama and Reagan Handled Nuke Negotiations

President Obama’s new national-security strategy places the highest priority on what he considers the urgent need to move forward with the so-called Prague agenda — derived from his 2009 address calling on the international community to move toward a world free of nuclear weapons. At that time, the call was seen by many as idealistic but generally harmless.

Now, as we approach the sixth anniversary of the speech, it seems dangerously naïve.

Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, China’s military rise while pressing territorial claims in the Asia-Pacific region, exploding Islamic extremism across the Middle East and North Africa, and Iran’s growing dominance in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen are all raising questions about the credibility of longstanding U.S. security commitments to friends and allies that are grounded in nuclear guarantees. These commitments, as President Kennedy stated more than 50 years ago, required the United States to maintain a nuclear capability “second to none.” If we failed to do so, there would be more nuclear proliferation, less stability, and a greater risk of war.

WNU Editor: Former President Reagan definitely had the will, strategic foresight, and commitment to confront the former Soviet Union on issues of nuclear weapons, proliferation, and verification. President Reagan also had timing on his side .... the Soviet Union was falling apart, and former Soviet leader Gorbachev understood only too well that a new strategy and policy had to implemented. President Reagan took advantage of that .... and the rest is history. And while I do understand that President Obama and the world that he is facing is different from the one that President Reagan faced, I must confess that I do not have any confidence that the White House will be successful in stopping Iran's nuclear program .... in fact .... I see this agreement as a recipe for more instability in the Middle East, and a very real possibility of nuclear proliferation. And the reason why is simple .... Iran is determined to keep intact its nuclear program, and in this giant test of wills .... President Obama is clearly the weaker party.