Morning Joe: Bureaucracy Could Derail Obama Nuclear Agenda

Stories we're following today:

Obama Faces Challenges to Nuclear-Free Goal – Robert Norris in The Washington Times [link]

• As president, [Obama] is in a position to act and over the next months a series of initiatives will unfold. The two most immediate challenges are crafting a Nuclear Posture Review that serves his goals and ensuring that all interested parties throughout the government are on board.
• At the crux of the review is the question of targets and strategy. Targets are among the most sensitive and secretive topics surrounding nuclear weapons. What are the weapons aimed at and how much damage might they do if they were ever used?
• Over the next six months we will witness whether Mr. Obama's goal of a transitional nuclear paradigm has a chance of becoming a reality through reorienting the fundamentals of nuclear doctrine and strategy. The immediate objectives of achieving ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, securing vulnerable nuclear material around the world, and moving toward a smaller arsenal are practical steps on a path toward a nuclear-weapon-free world.
• [Robert Norris is a Ploughshares Grantee and a Senior Research Associate at the National Resources Defense Council]

Israeli: Iran Nuke Program Could Set off Arms Race – Associated Press [link]

• If Iran develops nuclear capabilities it will start an arms race in the Middle East that would threaten the world, Israel's foreign minister said Thursday.

U.S. cites progress in latest START talks with Russia - Reuters [link]

• Negotiators from the United States and Russia made progress on a deal to cut their nuclear weapons in two days of talks in Geneva this week, a U.S. spokesman said Friday.
• "Positive progress continues to be made in the discussions," Richard Wilbur, deputy spokesman of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Geneva, told Reuters.

Israeli missile-defense system hits snag – Associated Press [link]

• A joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense system meant to shield Israel from Iranian attack hit a snag when a series of tests were aborted because of malfunctions, defense officials said Thursday.
• Israel's concerns were heightened this week when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. would extend a "defense umbrella" over its Gulf Arab allies to prevent Iran from dominating the region "once they have a nuclear weapon."
• "I was not thrilled to hear the American statement from yesterday that they will protect their allies with a nuclear umbrella, as if they have already come to terms with a nuclear Iran," Dan Meridor, Israel's minister of intelligence and atomic energy, told Army Radio. "I think that's a mistake."

A View from the Dark Side

Enabling Tehran’s nukes – The Washington Times [link]

• Stating that America will extend a security umbrella is more likely to encourage Iran's leaders than dissuade them. The umbrella is the ultimate symbol of passivity and defensive posture. It tells Tehran that the regime will be safe, which is the regime's primary objective. Meanwhile, rain will fall under the umbrella as Iran pursues its interests more aggressively at the conventional and unconventional levels of conflict through proxies such as Hezbollah and Hamas.
• The stakes are too high and the threat too grave to let Iran become a nuclear power. The Iranian regime will move ahead regardless of the Obama administration's regional master plan, which is too little and too late. The United States would do well to begin contingency planning for the crisis that will ensue when Israel and other countries take concerted action to deal with the Iranian threat.