Obama’s Hiroshima visit panned by critics on left, right
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/29/obamas-hiroshima-visit-panned-by-left-right/ President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speak at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan on Friday. Mr. Obama's visit was criticized by the left and the right. Some said his rhetoric does not match his actions and others said his speech sounded like an apology. (Associated Press)
President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speak at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan on Friday. Mr. Obama’s visit was criticized by the left and the right. Some said his rhetoric does not match his actions ... more >
By Dave Boyer - The Washington Times - Sunday, May 29, 2016
President Obama burnished his legacy as the president who went to Hiroshima, but critics on the left and right say the historic visit probably won’t make a bit of difference for his dream of a world without nuclear weapons.
“In terms of his avowed goal of nuclear disarmament, no,” said Dean Cheng, a specialist on Asia and national security at the Heritage Foundation. “The Chinese aren’t going to give up nuclear weapons, the Russians aren’t going to give up nuclear weapons.”
Peace groups praised the president’s visit Friday to the site of the first nuclear bomb attack, where Mr. Obama called for a “moral revolution” to rid the world of nukes. But they said Mr. Obama’s lofty rhetoric doesn’t match his record in office.
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“His administration has proposed the largest increase in spending on nuclear weapons and their delivery systems in recent history — $1 trillion over 30 years,” said Paul Kawika Martin, senior director for policy and political affairs of Peace Action, the nation’s largest grass-roots peace organization. “During his term, the reduction of U.S. nuclear weapons has been the least since post-Cold War. President Obama has six months to solidify his nuclear legacy and ensure that his early Nobel Prize [in 2009] was deserved.”
As he promised, the president did not apologize for the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, which killed an estimated 215,000 people. He laid a wreath at Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima and embraced a 91-year-old survivor of the nuclear attack.
“We may not eliminate mankind’s capacity to do evil,” Mr. Obama said. “But among those nations like my own that hold nuclear stockpiles, we must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without them.”
