大統領の品格
昨日のニュースで、オバマ大統領が核廃絶に向けて取り組む方針を示したと、報道された。こういうニュースは日本の新聞に大きく取り上げられるのだが、実は本国ではあまり取り上げられていない。第三国のオーストラリアとか中東とかに新聞には少し取り上げられていた。私がざっと検索した限りでは、本国で取り上げられた記事でも、詳細はあまり書かれていないようだった。---Obama's nuclear-free call taps global momentumWASHINGTON (AFP) ― US President Barack Obama's call for a nuclear-free world builds on solidifying support at home and abroad amid what experts fear is the rising risk of an atomic weapons attack.Analysts said reclusive Stalinist North Korea's launch of a rocket -- which could eventually deliver a nuclear warhead -- underscored the threat even if it upstaged Obama's pledge.During a visit Sunday to Prague for a US-European Union summit, hours after the launch, Obama unveiled plans to cut atomic stockpiles, curtail testing, choke fissile production and secure loose nuclear material.He said he wanted an immediate end to nuclear tests, confirmed he would seek Senate approval of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and would hold a global summit on nuclear security within the next year.The Vienna-based organization which is working to implement the CTBT welcomed Obama's speech."It's important that the United States take the leadership on this issue. Hopefully it will move other actors to follow suit," said CTBTO spokeswoman Annika Thunborg.Joe Cirincione, a US non-proliferation expert, told AFP that the president's pledge echoes a shift among former US government leaders who once supported maintaining stockpiles of nuclear weapons as a deterrent during the Cold War."You now have die-hard realists like Henry Kissinger, George Schultz embracing the elimination of nuclear weapons," said Cirincione of the two former secretaries of state under presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.Also pushing for elimination are William Perry, defense secretary for former president Bill Clinton, former president Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter's national security adviser, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation, said influential public figures are embracing the strategy because "the threats are real and increasing."He cited fears over the implications of North Korea's ballistic missile and weapons-grade nuclear programs, Iran's nuclear ambitions, and terror mastermind Osama bin Laden's escape from Afghanistan to nuclear-armed Pakistan."The Bush doctrine, which was supposed to be a quick, easy answer to this (threat) ... made matters worse," he said, referring to former president George W. Bush's pursuit of overthrowing hostile and dangerous regimes.Cirincione said Obama was right to have the US lead by example and then stage a summit of countries with nuclear weapons, those suspected of having such weapons or at least the technology to make them.He recalled that countries like Iran and North Korea have always thrown criticism about the pursuit of nuclear programs back at the United States, which set off two nuclear bombs in Japan during World War II.The new US approach, he added, not only robs such countries of that excuse but boosts US credibility with countries whose support Washington needs to pressure so-called rogue regimes."It helps you get other countries, for example, to join the Proliferation Security Initiative to interdict shiploads of North Korean missile technology being sent to other countries," Cirincione said."It helps you to convince them to take stronger action to enforce UN resolutions," he added.The United States has struggled to recruit Russia and China to impose tougher UN Security Council resolutions on Iran in order to halt its uranium enrichment.David Albright, a non-proliferation expert who heads the independent Institute for Science and International Security, said he had not heard Obama's speech, but supported his general vision of a nuclear-free world."It may take a long time before we get there but our actions should be guided by that vision," Albright said, lamenting that "Bush had no vision."In the short term, he said it was not only "irritating" that North Korea upstaged Obama's speech but worrying that North Korea might be able to fit a warhead on a long-range ballistic missile in five or ten years.John Bolton, a US ambassador to the United Nations under Bush and outspoken critic of North Korea, sharply criticized Obama's speech.It was "utopian at best," he told AFP, as long as there are "countries like Iran and North Korea that are willing to cheat on their commitments in order to get nuclear weapons."Copyright ? 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.---しかし、私は、NHKのニュースでオバマ大統領が語った部分を見て、ものすごく感動した。そのくだりとは「私の生きている間には実現できないかもしれない。しかし、核を使用した唯一の国として、核の廃絶に向けてスタートを切り、この最終目標実現への道のりをリードしていきたい。まずその端初として、何々をしたい」といった内容(かなり意訳)だったと思う。これは、大変に崇高な決心なのだが、現実にはこれから核武装をしていこうという北朝鮮のような国もあるのだ。ものすごくいばらの道になる気がする。実際にあちらの論調では、理想主義すぎて、うまくいかないのではないかとも書かれている。その点はオバマ大統領自身も認めていて、その道は困難かもしれないがとも言っていた。国家の指導者というもの、特に大国の指導者となれば、パワーゲーム的な発想で方針を決めていくのが普通だろう。それに対して、オバマ大統領は、一人の人間として真摯にあるべき理想を考えてそれを実現しようと呼びかけたわけだ。自分の生涯では実現しなくても、自らのイニシャティブの成就を将来に託したいという趣旨。本当の指導者というのは、みんなが共感できる理想や理念を掲げて、そして説得してその目標実現に取り組んでいくのだという。このオバマ大統領のプラハでの演説は、まさにこの指導者のあるべき姿そのものだったと思う。それほど派手な演説でもなく、長いものでもない。おまけに、本国ではほとんど取り上げられていない。でも、私は、ここ東洋の異国日本のニュースから、大統領の資質と品格をかいま見た気がした。