Mr. President, I believe it is pronounced NU-KLE-ER

Did you hear about the report released by a Presidential Intelligence Commission (just the sound of that makes me giggle) that indicates that not only were we wrong about the presence or likelihood of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but that presently, our intelligence community knows relatively little about the status of nuclear threats around the world? Of course you didn't hear about it. Why? Because all the major media outlets are competing to report the least surprising news of the decade: Remember that Terri Schaivo lady? The one that they stopped feeding almost two weeks ago? She died today.

Behind the media circus, an important issue that could affect the lives of millions of Americans, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, is being largely cast aside by the media, in favor of round the clock coverage of the decomposition of Schaivo's body.

The proliferation of nuclear weapons has been a serious issue since I took my first breath on this earth. Back during the Reagan administration, the general consensus was that a strong offensive nuclear weapons program would act as a deterrent against Soviet nuclear attacks. We all remember hearing about mutually assured destruction. Unfortunately, that was back when we were fighting an evil empire, a country with a government, national borders, and cities. We knew exactly where to aim our missiles.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of terrorism, attacking our enemies has become considerably more difficult. Terrorism existed in the past, but not in the organized and widespread manner that we see today. Our largest enemy has no national borders, no single country of origin, and even resides among us. The same nuclear deterrent that we had during the 1980s is our largest enemy today, since the availability of weapons materials that resulted from that strategy is widespread. The shortsightedness of nuclear deterrence through escalation of arms production has never been more apparent.

Perhaps this is why a recent poll indicated that most Americans oppose the development and use of nuclear weapons, even by our own military. The American people understand the nuclear weapons are not a deterrent or even an effective weapon in the type of wars that we are fighting in now and will be fighting in the future. President Bush should do everything in his power to encourage the phasing out of nuclear weapons, starting here at home. We're just as vulnerable to nuclear attack with nuclear weapons that can't be used to retaliate against a nuclear attack as we are without any nuclear weapons at all. If you believe that nuclear deterrence applies when we're talking about Iran and North Korea, I would love to hear your evidence supporting that issue.