From the AP: "Relics of the Cold War" is how Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle labeled the bombs as Germany’s new government took office last October. …

By early this year, he was joined by the foreign ministers of Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and Luxembourg in calling for the nuclear discussion at Tallinn. Ex-NATO chief Claes and other former Belgian leaders published a statement favoring the weapons’ withdrawal. Most recently, some 200 members of five national parliaments wrote to U.S. President Barack Obama saying it is ‘the sincere wish of the majority of people in Europe’ that the bombs be removed.

The German-led campaign has also generated a backlash.

Britain’s George Robertson, a former NATO secretary-general, said it was "irresponsible" for Germany to expect to remain under the nuclear umbrella of U.S.-based strategic weapons while refusing to have its Luftwaffe – the Tornados of Buechel Air Base’s 33rd Fighter-Bomber Wing – share the burden.

Meanwhile, the three former Soviet Baltic republics, all NATO members now, are said to have expressed concern in alliance councils about an unpredictable Russia next door without U.S. atomic weapons nearby.  (photo: Pier Paolo Cito/AP)

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