"THE UNITED STATES SHOULD LEAD A GLOBAL EFFORT AT NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT?" No bleeding heart liberal here, it was Senator John McCain who said this on March 26, 2008, surprising many listeners.

Senator Obama: "Here's what I'll say as President: America seeks a world in which there are no nuclear weapons," October 2, 2007. What could be happening when the Republican and Democratic candidates for the U.S. presidency are both indicating a strong leaning toward nuclear disarmament?

The majority of the world population has been staunchly on the side of disarmament for years, 70 percent of the U.S. public wants disarmament. It may be that politicians are catching up and seeing the irrefutable logic of disarmament and that for McCain, especially, it is an answer to voters--people want nuclear disarmament. He is the first Republican candidate in many years to come close to suggesting an end to the nuclear weapons era in the belief that it would help him win the election. In fact, this may be a rare window of possibility--both national and international politics seem to be changing rapidly.

By early 2009 Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Pakistan, South Korea, Britain, the U.S. and possibly Israel and Iran will have new leaders, who hopefully will possess increasingly knowledgeable, pragmatic and fresh reasoning about the failed nuclear policies of the past. The people of the world may be leading the leaders of the world's nations to awareness of the terrifying dangers of nuclear material floating around the world's darkest weapons markets. In addition, 26,000 existing nuclear weapons are held in the hands of nine nations currently, including Israel.

If Iran and North Korea are struggling to join the "nuclear club," you can hardly question why. It is human nature and politically expedient for countries to go after this deadly prize if any country has weapons, and naive of the United States and its allies to think that only the "chosen" few countries could possess them and persist in preemptively preventing the "not chosen" from obtaining them. There definitely seems to be a fresh breeze among the world's policy makers, many of whom are now saying out loud that there needs to be a full out drive on the part of all nations for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.

The reasoning is bi-partisan.Republicans George Shultz and Henry Kissinger and Democrats William Perry and Sam Nunn in two Wall Street Journal opinion editorial pieces, "A World Free of Nuclear Weapons," have at last put down the gauntlet of disarmament--mirroring the majority of people world-wide and challenging all United States and world leaders to join them.The very conservative Hoover institute at Stanford University has created a series of steps that lead toward nuclear abolition. Seventeen of the 24 national security advisors and secretaries of State and Defense who are still living have endorsed this campaign. They call for deep reductions in all nuclear arsenals and a complete ban on nuclear tests and the production of bomb materials.

They are also calling for the removal of nuclear weapons from "hair-trigger alert," which gives presidents of the United States and Russia only 15 minutes to decide whether or not to initiate nuclear war, which could bring down our entire, fragile world social and biological systems.Senator Obama said last October that the best way to keep America safe is not to threaten terrorists with nuclear weapons--"it's to keep nuclear weapons and nuclear materials away from terrorists." He worked with Republican Senator Dick Lugar, senior senator from Indiana, to "accelerate our pursuit of loose nuclear materials." And went on to say, "that's why I'll lead a global effort to secure all loose nuclear materials during my first term in office."He doesn't stop there. He goes on to say that the U.S. nuclear policy and posture, "which is still focused on deterring the Soviet Union--a country that doesn't exist. . . while India and Pakistan and North Korea have joined the club of nuclear -armed nations, and Iran is knocking on the door.

More nuclear weapons and more nuclear-armed nations mean more danger to us all." He suggests strengthening the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).The NPT, designed over many years to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, has been ratified by 189 countries including the U.S. Of the countries possessing nuclear weapons, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea are not signatories. Its strength rests on three pillars: non-proliferation, disarmament and only peaceful use of nuclear technology (nuclear power). Strengthening this treaty is one sure way to pursue a global effort to free the world of these archaic and barbaric weapons.

We all must insist that this new breeze continues to blow. It's possible that now is our only chance.

"Peace Train" runs every Friday in the Colorado Daily. The opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Colorado Daily management or staff.