Largest Peace Group: President Obama's Nuclear Posture Not Quite Straight

In response to today's released Nuclear Posture Review by President
Obama, Kevin Martin, executive director of Peace Action -- a group
founded in 1957 to abolish nuclear weapons and the largest grassroots
peace organization -- stated:

"President Obama is the most engaged U.S. president ever on nuclear
disarmament issues, and Peace Action, like millions around the world,
applauded his Prague speech one year ago calling for a nuclear
weapons-free world. We are also encouraged by the New START agreement,
to be signed in Prague this Thursday, as a modest but necessary step
toward further nuclear arms cuts with Russia.

"However, the president's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), released today,
appears to be too beholden to outdated Cold War thinking, and it
doesn't measure up to his vision of a nuclear-free world. It's
certainly better than the one released by the Bush Administration,
which called for the possibility of using nuclear weapons on nonnuclear
states. The Obama administration reversed that. President Obama also
stated the U.S. would not build new nuclear weapons like those the
previous administration wanted but Congress thankfully blocked.
Nonetheless, the document leaves room for the possibilities of new
warheads in the future.

"Besides this disappointing NPR, the Administration has proposed a big
increase in funding for the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, and is
considering a very bad nuclear technology deal with Pakistan, thus
rewarding one of the worst nuclear weapons proliferators. This is in
addition to a similarly bad deal with India under the Bush
administration.

"Luckily, the NPR is not the last word on these or other nuclear
weapons subjects. Congress, the American people, and the international
community all have a role to play in advocating faster progress toward
the global elimination of the scourge of nuclear weapons. The upcoming
Non Proliferation Treaty Review conference in May will attract tens of
thousands of people from around the world to New York City demanding a
safer world with no nuclear weapons."

The Nuclear Posture Review is a congressionally mandated document that
lays out nuclear weapon strategy and purpose for the next five to ten
years.