Do you know what's happening on April 8th?

On April 8, President Obama and Russian President Medvedev will rendezvous in Prague to conduct some mildly important business, specifically the signing of a treaty that will commit each country to the reduction of their long-range nuclear weapons to 1,500 apiece. Currently the U.S. has 2,150 readily available nuclear weapons while Russia has 2, 600 as approximated by nuclear weapons expert Hans M. Kristensen.

The signing of the treaty will not mean the immediate retraction of either party's nuclear weapons as both country's Senates will have to ratify the treaty before it can be put into effect. Although Russia could successfully ratify with ease it will wait for a synchronized ratification with the United States. In the U.S. Senate the treaty will require 67 votes to pass, a feat which is likely to experience enough opposition to delay such ratification.

These are strides that I have been looking forward to. Many might argue that reducing or completely eradicating our nuclear weapons pantry is suicide but this is a sentiment that I cannot wholly agree with. How can we, as a nation, expect other countries to acquiesce to our demands for nuclear disarmament when we ourselves continue to sit happily perched upon our stockpile of nuclear weapons? The sheer purpose of such defensive measures seems to me to be counter-intuitive. We harness this nuclear power to protect our citizens while Russia, the U.K., France, China, Pakistan, North Korea, and India wield nuclear power for the very same reason, not to mention Israel, which has neither confirmed or denied its ownership of nuclear defense weapons. The same horror we could unleash upon any of these countries could just as easily be unleashed upon us and what purpose would that serve? If Hiroshima and Nagasaki serve as any kind of example what we can look forward to is the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians.

I applaud the effort to reduce nuclear arms because its a step in the right direction. Besides, wouldn't it just be easier to devise a mechanism that would target our enemies and transport them the island in Lost?