On the other side of the coin, the Russians are deceptive in their seriousness about horizontal non-proliferation when it comes to Iran and North Korea, and perhaps this should have been included in the treaty, but such negotiations are fraught with too many dynamics to make a serious criticism of the treaty on this front. None-the-less, it is becoming more than apparent that if the United States is serious about preventing a mullahist-nuclear Iran, sanctions – that would necessitate full Russian and Chinese cooperation – are simply not going to happen in any meaningful way. Both the Russians and Chinese are adept at playing a game that ingratiates themselves to the Western allies, while at the same time playing good-cop with rouge regimes.

Treaties like today’s that control the vertical proliferation of nuclear weapons deserve a cheer, but decisive and undaunted action is needed to control the horizontal proliferation of these weapons. Reducing the capacity of the United States and Russia to destroy the world over with a few less salvos is all fine and great, but as the cliché goes: it is the wrong the man with a single bomb that is the real threat to peace.

1. It came from a committee; and
2. It would allow individuals and organizations to better track wasteful spending (which would make my day much easier thank you)

While I’m not one to cite the Obama administration very often for its economic policies, it has gone far beyond the Canadian federal government in terms of transparency in spending.  It’s about time we had an equivalent of recovery.org, where taxpayers can get real information quickly, without haggling with bureaucrats for half of what they asked for, 3 months after they file for it.

All the cool leaders are doin’ it.