Nukes disarmament starts at home, ‘Bush-lite’ Obama

Is it only me, or is anyone else getting a weird feeling of 'Dubya Lite' coming off the shapely form of Barack Obama as he tools Air Force One around the world, a-meetin' and a-greetin'?

It was bad serendipity indeed that bouffant-haired nutter Kim Jong-il chose to launch his duff ICBM on the same day Obama stood up in Prague and committed himself to a world without nuclear weapons, but even so I remain unconvinced that North Korea's nuclear ambitions really are the biggest threat to peace that we face.

Let's step out of the comfort zone of Western power just for a second and try and see the world from a different perspective: here we have the man who has his finger on the trigger of the biggest nuclear arms stockpile in the world, gaily telling us that the proliferation of these weapons must be stopped.

Obama seems to think the whole world wants to be a Christian liberal democracy

Moreover, this man is also the president of a country that has invaded two countries in the past decade, launching conflicts that have led to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths. And if that weren't rich enough, he's also the leader of the only country ever to have used nuclear weapons in warfare.

OK, I understand that Obama wasn't personally responsible for any of this, and that he represents a bold new chapter in the Story of America, but if that's the case ­ and I'm maintaining my non-Western viewpoint here, ­ why does his language still sound so similar to that of his predecessors?

Obama has called for a world summit on nuclear security to be held within a year. He has also urged the tightening of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. But while he wants all the kids in the playground to put down their twigs, he still insists on the US's need to carry a huge intercontinental ballistic stick "to deter our adversaries and reassure our allies".

So, there is to be no climbdown from the 'nuclear shield' programme that so aggravates the Russians (and also a significant number of Czechs and Poles), until there is verification that Iran has abandoned its nuclear ambitions.