The Bush administration's recent wrangling with Russia over the U.S. plan to put missile defense components in Poland and the Czech Republic is the last thing we should be doing if we want to reduce the danger of nuclear confrontation. Add to this the Department of Energy's plans to build a new generation of nuclear weapons -- under the antiseptic name of the "Reliable Replacement Warhead" -- and you have a strategy almost guaranteed to generate more nuclear weapons states, not fewer.

On the flip side, major Democratic candidates have not only opposed the new warhead, but three of them -- John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson -- have called for the elimination of nuclear weapons altogether. Is their commitment genuine? If so, can it overcome bureaucratic opposition within the U.S. national security apparatus?

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