Dianne Feinstein waxes mythical in the Wall Street Journal over unilateral nuclear disarmament.

When Barack Obama becomes America’s 44th president on Jan. 20, he should embrace the vision of a predecessor who declared: “We seek the total elimination one day of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth.”

That president was Ronald Reagan, and he expressed this ambitious vision in his second inaugural address on Jan. 21, 1985. It was a remarkable statement from a president who had deployed tactical nuclear missiles in Europe to counter the Soviet Union’s fearsome SS-20 missile fleet.

President Reagan knew the grave threat nuclear weapons pose to humanity. He never achieved his goal, but President Obama should pick up where he left off.

The Cold War is over, but there remain thousands of nuclear missiles in the world’s arsenals — most maintained by the U.S. and Russia. Most are targeted at cities and are far more powerful than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Today, the threat is ever more complex. As more nations pursue nuclear ambitions, the world becomes less secure, with growing odds of terrorists obtaining a nuclear weapon.

The nuclear aspirations of North Korea and Iran threaten a “cascade” of nuclear proliferation, according to a bipartisan panel led by former U.S. Defense Secretaries William J. Perry and James R. Schlesinger.

Another bipartisan panel has warned that the world can expect a nuclear or biological terror attack by 2013 — unless urgent action is taken.

Nuclear weapons pose grave dangers to all nations. Seeking new weapons and maintaining massive arsenals makes no sense. It is vital that we seek a world free of nuclear weapons. The United States should lead the way, and a President Obama should challenge Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to join us.

Regardless of what Ronald Reagan did or didn’t say about this subject, reference to him by Feinstein is a Red herring, and she doesn’t really believe in the doctrine of peace through strength that marked his presidency.  Rather, Feinstein believes in myths.

It is analogous to the myth that disarmament of the population through gun control will make it safer.  Her worldview has no category for unrepentant, intentional evil, and thus it cannot exist.  Further, because evil cannot exist, it necessarily follows that behavior we might define as not conducive to the advancement of mankind (from a utilitarian or instrumentalist view) is able to be rectified by education.

Hence, Feinstein proposes the only remedy available in her world view for this behavior – example by unilateral disarmament.  But evil exists, and the bad actors in the world require deterrence, just like criminals need to know that the population is armed.  Peace through strength isn’t merely a byline; it’s the irreplaceable doctrine upon which safety and security are built.

The Obama administration has an opportunity to continue to ignore the nuclear weapons stockpile and refuse to engage in further research.  This would bring joy in the land of fairy tales, but the real world requires leadership by example, and not the kind of example that Feinstein is proposing.

Prior:

Sounding the Nuclear Alarm

An Aging Nuclear Weapons Stockpile