Obama's Nuke Test

On day 1, President Obama got the Ukraine to agree to surrender its full stock of highly enriched uranium--about 90 kilograms left over from the days of the Soviet Union. They plan to eliminate all of it by 2012 but will significantly reduce their supply by the end of this year. The United States has been trying to get the Ukraine to agree to this for over 10 years.

American officials briefed the Pakistanis on the real threat posed by terrorists to their nuclear stockpiles, the first time this has been done officially.

President Obama and Premier Hu met and China agreed to work with the United States to develop appropriate sanctions against Iran's nuclear program. There is now an expectation that the Security Council will move against Iran within weeks.

200 nuclear experts met at a parallel conference to the summit to discuss potential nuclear terrorism. Some of the discussion centered on conclusions by a CIA Sandia Lab covert operation which found that acquiring the materials for a dirty bomb was incredibly easy.

Conservatives complained that Israeli nuclear scientists who work at Dimona couldn't get visas to the United States under President Obama. The Israeli scientists said that this wasn't true. Their problems began with the Bush Administration after 9/11.

Republicans are claiming that the new Start Treaty will not be ratified this year by the Senate unless President Obama promises to modernize our current nuclear stockpile. Since there is already significant money in the defense budget for this, one wonders why they raise it at all. Joe Lieberman doesn't want to ratify the Treaty unless the missile defense system is maintained in Europe to protect our allies from Iran's non-existent nuclear weapon.

CNN conducted a poll of over 1,000 Americans about the new treaty. 70% said that the Senate should ratify; only 28% said that it should not. On the question whether all nuclear arms should be eliminated or some should remain in the hands of a few countries--50% were for the total elimination of nuclear arms; 49% for some remaining in the hands of a few countries.

The United States announced plans to be an active player in the May review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty since the previous Administration tried to downplay its importance in terms of American security.

Liz Cheney continued her campaign on behalf of Hamid Karzai and against President Obama.
And all that was only Day 1.