Obama's important trip to Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan with Lugar on nuclear proliferation

[zulchzulu]

It appears that some think that Barack Obama has only been in foreign lands when he was 12. While funny as a dishonest joke perhaps, it's pretty far from the truth.

If you want to hear an interesting report about "Challenges Ahead For Cooperative Threat Reduction" from both Obama and Lugar on their trip as members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this is a really informative event on this intensely important issue:

http://www.cfr.org/publication/9138/

MP3: http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/media/2005/11-1-05_Threat.mp3

[killbotfactory]

1. It's really the equivilent of Dick Cheney saying if you vote for Kerry the terrorists win

The message is clear: only the status quo establishment candidates can save us from the damage they themselves have caused.

Who better to fix a disaster than the ones who engineered it?

[sandnsea]

2. Lugar-Obama Initiative

President Bush today signed the Lugar-Obama proliferation and threat reduction initiative into law.

"The Lugar-Obama initiative will help other nations find and eliminate conventional weapons that have been used against our own soldiers in Iraq and sought by terrorists all over the world," said Obama. "The Nunn-Lugar program has effectively disposed of thousands of weapons of mass destruction, but we must do far more to keep deadly conventional weapons like anti-aircraft missiles out of the hands of terrorists."

"We want to ensure that our government has the capacity to deal quickly with vulnerable stockpiles of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, otherwise known as Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems (MANPADS). Such weapons could be used by terrorists to attack commercial airliners, military installations and government facilities here at home and abroad. Al Qaeda reportedly has attempted to acquire MANPADS on a number of occasions," said Lugar.

The Lugar-Obama initiative would energize the U.S. program against unsecured, lightweight anti-aircraft missiles and other conventional weapons. There may be as many as 750,000 man-portable air defense systems in arsenals worldwide, and the State Department estimates that more than 40 civilian aircraft have been hit by such weapons since the 1970s. In addition, loose stocks of small arms and other weapons help fuel civil wars in Africa and elsewhere and provide the means for attacks on peacekeepers and aid workers seeking to stabilize war-torn societies. In Iraq, unsecured stockpiles of artillery shells and ammunition have been reconfigured into improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that have become an effective weapon for insurgents.

"Lugar-Obama would also strengthen the ability of America's allies to detect and interdict illegal shipments of weapons and materials of mass destruction, a critical step in securing these weapons before they ever fall into the hands of terrorists that has not been a focus of current anti-terrorism efforts," Obama said.

http://obama.senate.gov/press/070111-lugar-obama_non/

[AtomicKitten]

3. I completely support Obama's NO NUKES policy.

Nuclear proliferation is a scourge on the planet.

[zulchzulu]

4. It is the biggest issue of our time

There are so many important issues to put all of our efforts into, but ridding the World of nukes, and especially loose nukes, should be one of the firs things we solve.