the issue of nuclear weapons
we're gonna play a clip from what happened at the uh... at the hearing and
they were going to go we're not fire at the flux capacitor reagan are going to
go back in time we're gonna see just how radical or not radical truck legal is
when it comes to nuclear arms and nuclear disarm and here's the clip from
the hearing today on that issue
when you were uh... in involved with that supporting the global zero
or where that you're at the uh... organization was their decoration is
quote we the undersigned believe that to protect our children for our
grandchildren are civilization from the threat of nuclear catastrophe we must
eliminate all nuclear-weapons globally we therefore commit to working for a
legally binding verifiable agreement including all nations to eliminate
nuclear weapons
prize a date certain
the position of global zero my position now
individuals uh...
national security leaders and senator nunn talked about
including himself it has never been unilateral disarmament
we have uh... over the years which i have supported
the united states his lead
and um...
reducing the approach to reducing nuclear warheads and there were there
was no um... more significant voice uh... for that than ronald reagan
and that's an important point
keep that in your mind
because this is generated a bunch of headlines saying oh chuck hagel wants to
get rid of nuclear weapons that's a radical position
he made reference to ronald reagan well if chuck hagel is a radical
i guess ronald reagan's a radical get this
we're not just discussing limits
on further increased of nuclear weapons
we seek instead to reduce that number
that total elimination one-day of nuclear weapons from the face of the
earth
this could affect my theory that
first of all if ronald reagan was running for president right now that he
couldn't run as a republican and he would lose a republican primary fuse a
sitting president he'd face a tea party primary ok uh... on so many issues
here you have a republican party trying to say
it is a radical position to support ultimately wanting to reduce of not
eliminate nuclear weapons
def d
iconic states of the republican party that the same politicians were
criticizing technical will bound and were shipped to
was a guy who that was his nineteen eighty five that was in some small
speech noises nineteen eighty-five inauguration speech possessions nitya
apparently not
and what do you what do you make it will let me give you that i love that they
use the word worship their and i think that the it's great to see is that
because i think that most republicans at least republican politicians
yelled ronald reagan and very similar way that they did you think self
they love to invoke his name they have no interest in what he actually set for
the most marlin did he disagrees with them that's that's unfortunate but i'm
not gonna focus on it i think that it's true for in both cases it's amazing i
mean ronald reagan
was a guy who gave speeches about
the need for union rights you have to eat raise taxes a number of times he's a
guy who supported gun control both as governor of of california and as a and
as a president in the reserve after its presence is for the brady
the brady bill
and the guy who said we got to get rid of all nuclear weapons
and have yet he is somehow still somehow perfect republicans at the same step of
the republican activity too much credit there are a lot of issues and gets on
there are a lot of ronald reagan but apparently yet but i i want to speak
generally about about newt's because i can only speak to
and you know when i talk to my friends about nuclear weapons which i sometimes
do
or students back when i used to teach classes on some this material i think
that the reason that yet that hale can be attacked in the way that he does is
that we're still approaching nuclear weapons with a very cold war mindset
and when we think about what affect countries have it nuclear and countries
having nuclear weapons has we approach it based on our ideas of deterrence
which were determined in the cold war context
and the the best example of that is that the situation of the terms of the united
states in the soviet union had uh... the idea of mutually assured destruction
and yet you know there was that in a lot of politicians are put aside to such as
they made careers based media that needs to actually lower the incidence of wars
in particular situations that's true like with the united states in the
soviet union
but that's not the world that we live in now and around having nuclear weapons or
india having nuclear weapons or any other country thought the same because
they don't all have the tripod of
twenty four seven bombers in the air out riding uh... missiles on submarines and
ground-based cruise missiles they might have afew bombs that they can load up on
a jet in this hangar that could be knocked out for instance or can be
stolen if insurgents break into that pain and still the material that's not
the situation we had the cold war and i don't think that that uh... inhofe bear
is
he's ready to accept what nuclear weapons mean in today's world i think
that's exactly right