Let me guess. What the US needs is a Republican President. Someone with strength who says things like it is, instead of this namby pamby diplomatic excellence of Obama, then the world will respect and fear again. Am i right?
Sad fact is, 3 of the 4 assassinated US presidents were Republican, and i do believe that a Republican was President during the worst terrorist attack on US soil, in history. Strong men do not gain respect unless their objectives are percieved as honourable, and in no instance do other nations fear the US President (or the US), whoever they happened to be. What clouds patriotism accumulates eh? To think that a great leader, of a great nation, has power akin to godliness. Your enemies won't fear you however strong the country or your president were, your allies won't respect you if your goals are dishonourable, again, however strong your country or president was.
Now to address the ridiculousness of your point about decreasing nuclear weapons of the US, as some kind of proof that Obama wants to lessen US power. Your current arsenal did not stop terrorism, backed by foreign regimes. Effective to have so many???
The US has the level that it does (well over 1000 warheads) to counterbalance the similar (if slightly higher) figure of Russia. The Cold War is over don't you know, and both countries are making gradual reductions to their stockpiles. Both countries have over 4 times the quantity of the 3rd country on the very small list of nuclear armed nations. There is only one country on that list that is any possible concern to US security (and only because of Guam and US interests abroad), North Korea. That country is estimated to have between 1 and 10 warheads.
Why the hell on Earth, given the devastation that nuclear weapons are known to cause, is it necessary for any one country on this planet to have any more than lets say twice its greatest enemy?
There are 14 countries in the world that are known to have nuclear weapons, although 5 of those share weapons through NATO (Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Turkey), that's NATO, no threat to the US. Of the remaining 9, the US is one, certainly no threat to itself, that leaves 8. Of the remaining 8, France, UK, Israel and India are firm allies, no threat. That leaves 4, of those, Russia and China are fellow permanent members of the UN security council, they may not be such good friends of the US, but they are no enemies either. That leaves 2. Pakistan is one, but is a 'trying' ally. Only radicals within the country are any threat to US security. The government is largely co-operative. That leaves 1. North Korea is a snappy little dog. Not to say its harmless by no means, but its hardly going to do something foolish without knowing it will be committing national suicide.
So Jack, please do tell, in what way is US power going to be weakened, and security threatened, if it chose to lets say halve its stockpile? It would still have the 2nd highest nuclear arsenal as it does now.
