So, So, Michael Dobbs at the Washington Post, in his capacity as debate fact-checker, made the argument that Barack Obama's claim that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty "fell apart" during the Bush administration is a stretch:
There have certainly been a lot of reverses over the last seven years, particularly on North Korea, but things weren't great under Clinton. It was under Clinton, after all, that India and Pakistan both tested nuclear weapons, which put a huge hole in the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association sent an e-mail to Dobbs noting that neither Pakistan nor India were parties to the NPT, and that, moreover, the Bush administration has enjoyed significant reverses in several other regions on the non-proliferation issue. Dobbs reply was largely unresponsive (claiming that Pakistani nukes are a threat to the U.S. is really sidestepping the issue), but did make the following argument: MORE ...
