Blain letter: Hiroshima speech

I appreciated President Obama’s gesture in visiting Hiroshima, but the peril of over 15,000 nuclear “terror” weapons in the world calls for actions, not gestures. I had hoped for something bolder from Mr. Obama. In his speech at the Hiroshima Memorial, the president said “we must have the courage to escape the logic of fear.” He should follow his own advice.

Before he leaves office, there is much President Obama could actually do. He should cancel the new nuclear-armed cruise missile designed to fight nuclear wars, and then stop the entire planned 30-year, trillion-dollar American nuclear arms buildup, He should also announce that the United States will support the growing international movement to declare these genocidal weapons illegal and eliminate all of them, worldwide. Otherwise, his eloquent Hiroshima speech was just hypocrisy.

This story was originally published June 4, 2016 at 12:08 AM with the headline "Blain letter: Hiroshima speech."