Washington and global nuclear tests

If the United States, the sole superpower, refuses stubbornly to ratify a global nuclear test ban treaty that will make the world safer for all, why on earth would any other country want to do it?

The Republicans in the U.S. Senate who oppose the treaty know they risk nuclear proliferation if they scuttle it. Yet they are blindly committed to block the pact by withholding ratification. Why? It has less to do with the merits of the issue itself, and more to do with America's domestic politics. The Republicans simply want to deny President Bill Clinton his top foreign policy goal to institute a global ban on nuclear tests. They will block the treaty because they do not want it to be his legacy.

-- The Straits Times, Singapore