Turning His Back on History

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

-George Santayana

We've all heard those words before. Personally, I think there is a lot of truth to them. Granted, no two instances in history are identical. However, taking into account historical similarities is a vital component of smart foreign policy. Professor Obama seems to have forgotten his history.

Earlier this week, Obama announced that the US will pledge not to use or even threaten to use nuclear weapons against any state that has attacked us with chemical or biological weapons - so long as it is in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Apparently, this is some sort of effort to convince the world with a good example that nuclear weapons are not necessary in the 21st century.

Here's the problem, as Charles Krauthammer points out - for the last quarter century, the United States and Soviet Union/Russia have been reducing their nuclear arsenals. The result? Pakistan. North Korea. Iran. All have completed or are developing nuclear weapons. Saddam Hussein also sought after a nuclear arsenal.

History would suggest that President Obama's efforts to change history will in fact be thwarted by history. As Krauthammer argues:

This administration seems to believe that by restricting retaliatory threats and by downplaying our reliance on nuclear weapons, it is discouraging proliferation.

But the opposite is true. Since World War II, smaller countries have agreed to forgo the acquisition of deterrent forces — nuclear, biological, and chemical — precisely because they placed their trust in the firmness, power, and reliability of the American deterrent.

Obama is no realist when it comes to foreign policy. While we should all applaud his hope for a world without nuclear weapons, history would tell us that this hope may in fact lead to a far more dangerous world.