Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Is Being Sought By President Obama

Test Ban Treaty Sought -- Washington Times

The Obama administration has launched a new effort to win ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, known as CTBT, which was voted down by the Senate in 1999.

The effort is being led by Jon Wolfsthal, an arms-control specialist at two think tanks until he became a national-security aide to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and a staffer on the White House National Security Council in January.

Mr. Wolfsthal was making the rounds in the Senate on Wednesday, checking to see if the administration can drum up the 67 votes needed - a two-thirds majority - to ratify the treaty, which prevents underground nuclear tests.

Read more ....

My Comment: The Obama Administration is over reaching .... with all that they have on their plate .... they now want to go after this?

Test Ban Treaty, Take Two -- A Commentary

White House, Treaty Room. President Kennedy signs Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 07 October 1963

The New Atlantis:

Banning Tests Won’t Stop Nuclear Weapons Development.

To judge by the hopes of its supporters, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is indispensable to the longstanding goal of nuclear disarmament: It would preclude the development of new nuclear weapons and set existing stockpiles on the road to aging and unreliable obsolescence. To its critics, however, the treaty’s flaws more than match these claimed benefits. In their view, the CTBT is a mischievous plot to disarm the most sophisticated and scrupulous nuclear-armed state—namely, the United States—while leaving reliable weapons in the hands of those with less technically advanced designs and giving cheating opportunities to those who lack our reluctance to break the treaties we sign.

Read more ....

My Comment: The key sentence in this report is in the last paragraph .... As the saying goes, the devil is in the details.

There are a lot of details in this article, and if this is your thing, go ahead and read it all.

There's No Reason For A Nuclear Test Ban -- A Commentary

On August 6, 1963, after more than eight years of difficult negotiations, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union signed the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Photo from the JFK Library

From The Wall Street Journal:

It's back. A decade after its rejection by the Senate, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is once again under consideration. President Barack Obama says he wants the Senate to ratify it "at the earliest, practical date." But to what end? As the ratification debate of the 1990s showed and the last 10 years confirm, the CTBT is irrelevant to the world's main nuclear dangers and may actually encourage the very proliferation it aims to stem.

In 1992, the U.S. unilaterally pledged to forgo all nuclear testing involving a "critical" explosion, i.e., an explosion of fissile material involving a self-sustaining chain reaction. In 1996, the U.S. voted for the CTBT when it was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly and the U.S. became the first country to sign it. In 1997, President Bill Clinton sent it to the Senate. In 1999 the Senate denied approval, 19 votes short of the 67 necessary.

Read more .....

My Comment: For the trouble spots in the world .... a nuclear test ban treaty is perceived as just a piece of paper. Having it ratified by the U.S. Senate will only make President Obama's base "feel good" about it ..... but it will have ZERO impact on countries like North Korea, Iran, and who knows who else.