(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/1999/08/31/EDITORIAL7821.dtl

The United States should put aside doubts, politics and intrigue to ratify a world-wide prohibition on nuclear testing

IT MAKES no sense for the United States to refuse to sign the proposed nuclear test ban treaty. From any moral, diplomatic or strategic standpoint, it's in this country's interest to join with more than 150 nations to outlaw tests of the most destructive weapon ever known to humankind. Clinton signed the treaty in 1996 and sent it to the Senate the following year.

Nonetheless, U.S. participation is in doubt. Politics intervenes.

Republicans seeking to thwart President Clinton or pushing other agendas threaten to defeat the treaty. Of such maneuvers, neither great statesmanship nor great statesmen are made.

Presumably, one of the goals of political leadership should be to make this a safer world in which to live, as opposed to one in which to die. Perhaps there's an argument that shutting down nuclear tests would actually make the world more dangerous, but it's one we can't even imagine.

A practical reason for the United States to participate is to encourage other nations to ratify the treaty, especially those who like to rattle the nuclear saber. India and Pakistan come to mind.

So does North Korea. We don't know whether North Koreans possess the bomb. But if they do, we'd prefer they don't test it. And if they don't have it, we'd prefer they don't develop the means to obtain one by practicing.

The United States is the world's leading nuclear power. It has the most experience in the field. It exploded more than 1,000 nuclear devices between 1945 and 1992, when President Bush agreed to halt testing. This country is unlikely ever to set off another nuclear explosion (we hope) with or without a formal test ban. Scientists have developed sophisticated computer simulations designed to take care of the nation's existing nuclear arsenal.

Without U.S. approval, a global nuclear test-ban treaty is a big, and deadly, joke. If the United States opts out, it would be pretty tough to convince a nuclear wannabe nation to sacrifice its aspirations. U.S. nonparticipation would also make it difficult to gain the acceptance of current nuclear powers. Understandably, they'd be loath to take on something that looks a lot like universal disarmament.

President Clinton has made the treaty a top goal of his administration's foreign policy. Perhaps for that reason alone, some Senate Republicans would like to defeat the pact, which for confirmation requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate. (For passage, the affirmative votes of more than a dozen GOP members are needed.)

To the fate of the treaty, Republicans link two other matters. They want to scuttle an accord to reduce global warning which President Clinton signed last year. And they want assurance that the United States will go ahead with a limited missile defense system against nuclear missile attack.

In order to achieve the latter, the United States must get concessions from the Russians, who first want this country to pare its nuclear arsenal.

All of this is very complicated in order to achieve a small step toward heading off a nuclear Armageddon.

Even if this were mostly a symbolic gesture, the symbolism would be this: The United States balks at taking leadership toward making the world a bit less likely to destroy itself. But it is more serious than this. Nations that test weapons are more likely to use them. History shows that.

Given half a chance to blow our enemies to smithereens, we'll do it. And they'll return the favor.

Every senator who values survival should vote for the test ban treaty.

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