Obama hails new U.S. nuclear policy as recognizing real threats



The Obama administration on Tuesday released a strategy that will serve as the basis for several weeks of domestic and international policy deliberations aimed at countering the proliferation of nuclear weapons and materials.


President Barack Obama, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Price in part because of his commitment to reduce nuclear weapons, said the so-called Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is focused on the new threats facing the United States.

{mosads}The high-level statement of the U.S. nuclear policy and strategy, which is mandated by Congress, “recognizes that the greatest threat to U.S. and global security is no longer a nuclear exchange between nations, but nuclear terrorism by violent extremists and nuclear proliferation to an increasing number of states,” Obama said. 


The NPR was released two days before Obama’s Thursday trip to Prague, where he will sign a new arms-control agreement with Russia. The following week, Obama will host world leaders in Washington for a summit on nuclear security.


“To stop the spread of nuclear weapons, prevent nuclear terrorism, and pursue the day when these weapons do not exist, we will work aggressively to advance every element of our comprehensive agenda — to reduce arsenals, to secure vulnerable nuclear materials, and to strengthen the NPT [Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty],” Obama said Tuesday.
 
Obama has had to strike a cautious balance with the much-anticipated NPR. Going too far could risk losing support from Senate Republicans for ratification of the new arms-control agreement with Russia, known as the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).



White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama is hopeful that the Senate will follow the example set by recent nuclear weapons treaties and ratify START by a large majority this year.

“This has always been, and the president believes should always be, a bipartisan issue,” Gibbs said Tuesday.

Gibbs said Obama would tell Republican senators “that this is far and away in our best interest to reduce the threat that some of these weapons have.”

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday expressed initial concern with the nuclear review. The two GOP senators in joint statement were wary of the effect the NPR would have on the U.S. nuclear modernization program and the long-term reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile. 

“The Obama Administration must clarify that we will take no option off the table to deter attacks against the American people and our allies,” the McCain and Kyl said.

“We believe that preventing nuclear terrorism and nuclear proliferation should begin by directly confronting the two leading proliferators and supporters of terrorism, Iran and North Korea. The Obama Administration’s policies, thus far, have failed to do that and this failure has sent exactly the wrong message to other would be proliferators and supporters of terrorism.”
 


The NPR focuses on the most immediate dangers: nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism. And while nuclear capabilities are considered “weapons of last resort,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the NPR sends a very strong message for both Iran and North Korea, two countries seen as violating international treaties on nuclear non-proliferation.



“We carve out states that are not in compliance” with international treaties and the United States will keep all options “on the table” against those nations which do not play by the rules, Gates said at a Pentagon press briefing Tuesday.



Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who joined Gates at the briefing, called the new nuclear review a “milestone in the transformation of our nuclear forces.”


The NPR is the first document of its nature that is completely unclassified.
 
The NPR states that the United States will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with non-proliferation obligations. These states would face the prospect of a “devastating conventional military response” if they attack the U.S., its allies and partners with chemical and biological weapons. That means that the Pentagon will focus over the next few years on future long-range strike capabilities.



In the case of nuclear states and non-compliant states, the United States would use nuclear weapons only in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the U.S. and its allies and partners, and would use nuclear weapons as a deterrent for conventional or chemical and biological attacks, but only in a narrow range of contingencies.


The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, said that he and the military service chiefs “fully support” the findings of the new review, which present a “more balanced mix” of nuclear and non-nuclear weapons.



The United States military will keep its nuclear triad of submarines, bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), but will only retain one warhead on the ICBMs to enhance crisis stability. 


The U.S. will not conduct nuclear testing and will not invest in new nuclear warheads. Any nuclear weapon life extension programs will only use previously tested designs and not support new military missions or provide for new military capabilities. Replacements of nuclear components would require special presidential authorization. 



Leading Democrats in Congress hailed the NPR on Tuesday. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the new review proves that the U.S. is serious about the NPT “without diluting America’s strategic deterrent one iota.” 



“For the first time, preventing nuclear terrorism and nuclear proliferation correctly top America’s nuclear agenda. No longer do we couch our posture review with deliberate ambiguity,” Kerry said in a statement. “The President is strengthening our national security to meet today’s most pressing threats, not Cold War phantoms.”


House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) and Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) said in a joint statement Tuesday that the NPR “sets a framework to protect our security today and to deter future threats.”


“We are pleased that the NPR retains a nuclear ‘triad’ of intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and heavy bombers,” the two House lawmakers said.

Other Republicans joined Kyl and McCain in criticizing the new document.

Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, on Tuesday warned that there “could be clear consequences for some of the language and perceived signals embedded in the review.”

“By unilaterally taking a nuclear response off the table, we are decreasing our options without getting anything in return and diminishing our ability to defend our nation from attack,” said Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio), the Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.

McKeon and Turner said they intend to press administration witnesses on details and the underlying rationale behind decisions made in the Nuclear Posture Review at an Armed Services Committee hearing next Wednesday.

Sam Youngman contributed to this report.

This story was updated at 5:22 p.m.