What Does the Times Square Bomber Have in Common with the UN Nuclear Nonproliferation Conference?

Wall Street Journal editor Bret Stephens provides the answer. He notes that the star of the UN Conference is none other than Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose regime is busily at work proving why the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the nuclear weapons policy of the Obama Administration are based on concepts that are 40 years out of date. His chilling warning concludes:

The world today is rapidly moving toward what strategist Andrew Krepinevich calls the "second nuclear age," in which deterrence no longer works as it did during the Cold War. "It may be," he writes, "that leaders of the newly armed nuclear states do not calculate costs and benefits in a manner similar to the United States." Yet we haven't even begun to think seriously about how to navigate these waters. Hillary Clinton's mindless calls yesterday about strengthening the NPT [Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty] won't do.

One day a Pathfinder with tinted windows may park itself in Times Square with something more than propane tanks in the back seat. We may not be able to stop it. But we will live more securely if the driver of that car knows exactly what we intend to do next.