Quick Takes: Obama's UN Speech

The transcript from Obama's speech at the UN meeting is up.   I don't think it said anything extremely shocking although it did reference Iran and North Korea by name which is interesting.  Regarding the implication of the speech, I disagree with Julian Borger's characterization.  Based on Obama's statement that:

We will complete a Nuclear Posture Review that opens the door to deeper cuts, and reduces the role of nuclear weapons [emphasis mine]

Borger derives his title "Obama pledges radical cuts in nuclear arsenal" and offers the following assessment:

Obama has just said some striking things about US nuclear weapons policy in his first speech as US president to the UN general assembly . . .The president still has a fight on his hands with the Pentagon and eventually Congress over the posture review, but he has just given the world his pledge that he will win that fight. He also pledged that he will win the struggle in the Senate to get the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty ratified. These are strong words.

While Borger's post seems to be seeking validation on the story ran Monday in Guardian about Obama swatting the initial shot attempt of the NPR (of which I remain skeptical), I don't read the above sentence from Obama's speech as strongly as to suggest with regards to the NPR battle "he has just given the world his pledge that he will win that fight."  The Pentagon has been pretty up front (cache apologies-- bear with technical difficulties of new site) that they understand the Prague agenda drives the NPR.  There will be disagreements about how far the NPR can go in supporting that agenda but the broad parameters are clear.  When Obama says the NPR "opens the door to deeper cuts," it probably just means something along the lines of general support for another round of arms control reductions after the START follow-on (and what that looks like from a force planning standpoint).  These tempered assessments are why I'm skeptical what was said are such "strong words" given the direction of the NPR has been clear for awhile, there is no mention of the NPR battle in the speech, and "move forward with ratification" (something known since Prague) is not "will win the struggle" for the CTBT.  Obama very well may want to win many of these battles but the language used in the speech is not as strong as interpreted for a reason: these will be real tough tasks.