The White House announced yesterday that President George W. Bush has decided to reduce the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile by an additional 15 percent by 2012.

The new retirements come on top of those already undertaken over the past three years. In 2004, Bush said the United States would cut its arsenal — which includes a vast number of warheads in storage — in half by 2012.

However, the nuclear agency has retired weapons much more swiftly than anticipated and now expects to achieve the 50 percent reduction before the end of this year, Thomas D’Agostino, head of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, said at a press conference earlier in the day. ...

Jeffrey Lewis, an arms control expert at the New America Foundation, called the additional reductions a “welcome” development. However, he added, “it doesn't change the fundamental debate about the purpose of the U.S. nuclear arsenal … and whether we need thousands or hundreds of warheads or how large our weapons complex should be.” ...

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