Obama outlines sweeping goal of nuclear-free world

PRAGUE (AP) — Declaring the future of mankind at stake, President Barack Obama said Sunday all nations must strive to rid the world of nuclear arms and that the U.S. had a "moral responsibility" to lead as the only country ever to use one.

Even as a North Korean rocket launch upstaged his ambitious, if not realistic, call to action in the heart of Eastern Europe, Obama dismissed those who say the spread of nuclear weapons cannot be checked.

"This fatalism is a deadly adversary," he told a crowd of more than 20,000 in an old square outside the Prague Castle gates. "For if we believe that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable, then we are admitting to ourselves that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable."

Calling nuclear arms "the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War," Obama appealed to anti-nuclear activists in the United States and abroad while taking care to promise that America's national security would not be compromised.

He chose as the venue for his address a nation that peacefully threw off communism and helped topple nuclear power Soviet Union. "Let us honor our past," Obama said, "by reaching for a better future."

Shifting on an eight-day European trip from the economic crisis to the war in Afghanistan and now nuclear capabilities, Obama said his goal of "a world without nuclear weapons" won't be reached soon, "perhaps not in my lifetime."

But he said his country, with one of the world's largest arsenals and the only nation to have used an atomic bomb, has a "moral responsibility" to start taking steps now.

The nuclear-free cause is more potent in Europe than in the United States, where even Democratic politicians like Obama must avoid being labeled as soft or naive on national security matters. Indeed, Obama said surrendering nuclear weapons must be a global all-for-one, or not-at-all, endeavor.

"Make no mistake: As long as these weapons exist, we will maintain a safe, secure and effective arsenal to deter any adversary, and guarantee that defense to our allies," said Obama, who promised to host a summit within the next year on nuclear weapons.

He also gave his most unequivocal pledge yet to proceed with a missile defense system in Europe while Iran pursues nuclear weapons, as the West alleges. That shield is to be based in the Czech Republic and Poland. Those countries are on Russia's doorstep, and the move has contributed to a significant decline in U.S.-Russia relations.