Obama understands post-Cold War world (Sen. John Kerry)

The result of President Obama’s steely-eyed thinking in his Nuclear Posture Review is a substantive statement that maintains our nuclear deterrence while addressing the new security challenges we face. Finally, America’s nuclear policy reflects post-Cold War reality.

The challenge was to reduce our dependence on nuclear weapons, both for our security and to prove to that the United States is serious about the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, 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. We affirmatively state that we will not use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that are signatories to and in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. At the same time, we make clear that we will meet a chemical or biological weapons threat with “a devastating conventional military response.

It’s clear that with this report, the new START Treaty, and this year’s budget proposal to increase funding for nuclear scientific research and the strengthening of our nuclear infrastructure, the President is strengthening our national security to meet today’s most pressing threats, not Cold War phantoms.  The American people and our allies will be safer as a result.”