Military Urges Eliminating Nukes
In 1996, generals and admirals from 17 nations, with dozens from the US and Russia,  issued a statement urging reduction and eventual abolition of nuclear weapons. “We know that nuclear weapons... represent a clear and present danger to the very existence of humanity... We have been presented with a challenge of the highest possible historic importance: the creation of a nuclear-weapons-free world. The end of the cold war makes it possible. The dangers of proliferation, terrorism, and the new nuclear arms race render it necessary. We must not fail to seize our opportunity. There is no alternative.”

Yet in spite of this and numerous other statements from top diplomats and other knowledgeable people, our policy, in 2010, is to maintain our nuclear weapons indefinitely, while trying to ratify the new START treaty with Russia to further reduce their numbers and dangers. The duality of this approach bears the stamp of  Cold War thinking, which is clinging to this power to destroy the world. 

But the rest of the world is thinking, “We had better have our own nuclear weapons to keep others from attacking us.” This duality is a sure formula for continuing to risk the dangers of a nuclear exchange and encouraging proliferation. 

Some nation must lead the way, and that nation should be the US.  We have the most knowledge of these weapons and by far the most powerful conventional military in the world. That is our deterrent. 

“It is becoming clearer that nuclear weapons are no longer a means of achieving security; in fact, with every passing year they make our security more precarious.” - Mikhail Gorbachev, quoted in Toward a Nuclear-Free World by George P. Shultz, William J Perry, Henry A Kissinger and Sam Nunn, The Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2008.