On April 12, President Obama will meet more than 40 world leaders to discuss what he has called one of the four most important goals of his presidency: Nuclear disarmament. But the idea has its share of dissenters. "Skeptics of a nuclear-free world [say] such a goal is politically impossible and practically dangerous," says Robert Marquand in the Christian Science Monitor.
"The road to zero...faces a silo of skepticism, inertia, and practical and psychological complexities," Marquand says. "States like India and others see nuclear status as a matter of prestige. China isn't yet ready for disarmament. Smaller states view nuclear weapons as a hedge against large states with hefty conventional armies. Nor are Pentagon strategists dancing in their bunkered hallways about zero nukes.
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