Nuclear Arsenals

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Global map of nuclear arsenals

President Barak Obama just made a very important declaration : his desire to eliminate the world’s nuclear weapons.

He admitted that his is the only country to use such arms, but he added that this is the very reason that the U.S. should lead the way to their abolition.

There are moments when one gets depressed and says that democracy doesn’t work. But then again there are luminous and honorable episodes when the system shows its marvelous capacity to correct its error and represent humanity’s most beautiful longings. And President Obama, with his profound belief in the will of the people (“Yes, we can!”) continues to fulfill our hopes.

I’m not naive: His gesture is double edged. While he shows himself to be a man of principles and humanitarian leadership, he continues the war in Afghanistan.

We have every reason to be afraid that the shining knight on his great horse of state that Barak Obama is today will end up like Lyndon Johnson did way back in the 60’s when he pushed on with the Vietnam war. The parallels are frightening: an unpopular war in a country whose corrupt government is not worth defending, an elusive, dedicated and fanatic enemy fighting in its own terrene against foreign invaders, and the inevitability of many dead U.S. soldiers.

It is true that Obama is more charismatic, a Camelot-inheritor who resembles Kennedy more than he does Johnson. And he knows how to make inspiring political gestures. But already there is an humanitarian crisis on the Afghan – Pakistani border caused by U.S., drone-delivered bombs.

I fear for how he will be able to deliver on his many promises if he, too, becomes a “war president”. But I’m not cynical either, and I applaud this man who has become an icon of the Twentieth Century’s conscience.