Fast forward to today, and it is time for the President to again speak on this issue. This is what he should say on August 6:

“Seventy years ago, at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we learned about the awesome destruction that nuclear weapons can cause. Seventy years. The Bible says it is the span of a human life. And it is also the age of a dangerous myth that should be allowed to live no longer.

“For 70 years, we have told ourselves that nuclear weapons make us secure. But it is time to reject this fantasy and recognize that nuclear weapons are, in fact, the primary threat to our security — that far from protecting us they pose an existential threat to our civilization, and perhaps to our survival as a species.

“It is easy to understand why we thought these weapons would make us safe. For most of human history we were more secure if we had more powerful weapons than our potential enemies. But as Einstein so eloquently said, nuclear weapons have changed everything except the way we think. If the use of our own weapons will destroy us, then they are no longer agents of our security. And that is the reality which we must face: Our nuclear weapons are, essentially, suicide bombs.