Obama rethinking new US nuclear strategy

Now, in an effort to permanently reduce the US nuclear arsenal by thousands of weapons, President Barack Obama is making final decisions on a broad new nuclear strategy for the United States.

These are tough decisions as Obama is also being urged by those both inside the Pentagon and White House to reject proposals that the United States declare it would never be the first to use nuclear weapons.

Obama's new strategy - which will void or reverse several initiatives taken by the former Bush administration - will be included in a nearly completely document called the Nuclear Posture Review, which offers a comprehensive review of US nuclear weapons strategy and policy for the next five to 10 years.

The 2010 NPR is the third such comprehensive study since the end of the Cold War. The first was completed by the Clinton administration in 1994 and the second by the George W. Bush administration in 2002. While the 1994 and 2002 reviews were classified, the current study will release an unclassified report.

The much-awaited review of US nuclear forces in Washington's global strategy is expected to reduce the role of atomic weapons in regional scenarios and retire the nuclear-armed Tomahawk sea-launched land-attack cruise missile, according to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).

Time is of the essence. Both the NPR and New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) have been delayed considerably. The NPR will probably not be out until late March or April; and the New START negotiators have taken a break and will meet again sometime in March.

Understandably, given the administration's ongoing emphasis on nuclear weapons issues, the pundits, political observers and national security reporters are all trying to read the tea leaves regarding these delays. Commentary on the NPR has ranged from tersely worded admonishments to constructive attempts to discover reasons for the delay; Kazinform cites the Arab News.

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