It’s been a marathon week for journalists following President Obama’s first visit to the Europe since his election. From the G20 in London, to the NATO Summit in Strasbourg, to the U.S.-E.U. Summit in Prague and now his visit to Turkey, the president’s actions and comments have made headlines around the world.
Today the president’s speech on nuclear disarmament, delivered in Prague’s Hradcany Square, are triggering a very strong reaction – not all of them favorable.
Ansgar Graw, the political editor of Germany’s Die Welt warns that to pursue President Obama’s thinking to its logical conclusion would be dangerous at best. He writes in part:
“In his Prague address, Barack Obama correctly referred to the danger of the new nuclear arms race and the growing risk of nuclear weapons deployment. But his demand that therefore we should pursue a nuclear weapons free world is erroneous. … To be sure (at least in theory) it’s possible that all of the world’s nuclear warheads could be scrapped, but the know-how for producing them cannot be. … The path from civilian to military nuclear fission is a short one. Who is willing to guarantee that some particularly dubious corner of a nuclear disarmed world won’t seek to ‘exit from the exit?’ The near-nuclear power of Syria and the hunger-struck state of North Korea, which is armed to the teeth, have demonstrated that such programs can be organized quite discreetly.”
By Political Editor Ansgar Graw
Translated By Jonathan Lobsien
April 5, 2009
Germany – Die Welt – Original Article (German)
Barack Obama erred in his call for a nuclear weapons free world. This is one demand that could be very dangerous.
The president is right – and the president is mistaken. In his Prague address [watch below], Barack Obama correctly referred to the danger of the new nuclear arms race and the growing risk of nuclear weapons deployment. But his demand that therefore we should pursue a nuclear weapons free world is erroneous. The applause – even from [Chancellor] Angela Merkel and [Foreign Minister] Frank-Walter Steinmeier – only served to reinforce an illusion that would not lead to a better world, but a more dangerous one.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
