Naivete or Rhetoric?

Obama has now called for the eradication of nuclear weapons (link). You can see my opinion on the likelihood of that here. I now have to wonder if he really means this, or if this is just rhetoric he is using to push nations to a decrease in nuclear capabilities. If so, this may actually be a good strategy; have one goal, but give people an amazing, impossible goal to reach , so when they fall short they'll meet your actual goal.

I'm sure most of us can agree that an international decrease in the presence of nuclear weapons would be a good thing, as long as the US and our allies keep enough to be effective both as a deterrent to use and to use should worst come to worst. A reduction would have only positive benefits, less chance of them falling into terrorists' hands, less reason for other nations to feel threatened into procurement, and improved world opinion.

One very good sign I saw in the AP article was that Obama promised that we would keep nukes as long as other nations had them, and another was this quote by him, "As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven." That is actually, in my opinion, a reasonable approach.