Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Perspectives. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
America's Nuclear Arsenal Can Stand on Just Two Legs
Topic Started: Aug 4 2016, 04:37 PM (217 Views)
Deleted User
Deleted User

Aug 4, 2016 12:32 PM EDT
By Tobin Harshaw

It's one of the delicious ironies of the Barack Obama presidency that a man who came into office with lofty talk on nuclear nonproliferation would oversee the biggest modernization of the U.S. arsenal since the Cold War. His administration kick-started a $1 trillion nuclear upgrade initiative that, among other things, will refurbish eight major weapons labs and prolong the lives of the Pentagon's most important tactical nuclear bomb and submarine-based warhead.

For those of us who think there are more pressing issues than who gets to use what bathroom in North Carolina, this update is a legacy worth championing.

However, it is possible to have too much of a necessary thing. Case in point is a new plan by the Air Force to spend $62 billion for research and development of new nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles to replace the aging Minuteman IIIs now in silos in the northern Great Plains.

http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-08-04/america-s-nuclear-arsenal-can-stand-on-just-two-legs
Quote Post Goto Top
 
George Aligator
Member Avatar

The motto of the nuclear triad arsenal is "Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it." The entire multi-billion dollar structure of our nuclear deterrent is based on unique theories which, thank God, have never been actually put to the test. Our ideas about deterrence, first-strike, reciprocal exchanges and survivability are all imaginatively derived by analogy from strategic defense thinking that goes back to 1940 and didn't work well then.

One thing does seem clear: the ultimate outcome of nuclear confrontation will depend heavily on the structure, goals and values of our adversary. Russia is still a riddle wrapped inside an enigma. China has no modern history. Proliferation states such as India, Pakistan and Israel present strategic challenges without nuclear precedent. In sum: we are groping our way down a very dark nuclear tunnel at the end of which may lie the end of human civilization.

In this unique circumstance, attempts at penny-pinching, however well-intentioned are risky indeed.
Conservatism is a social disease
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Robert Stout
Member Avatar

We could have quad nuclear arsenal by enlisting Muslim-Americans into our military to wear nuclear suicide vests...We should have never eliminated the Davy Crocket mortar............ :hooray:
Jesus can raise the dead, but he can't fix stupid
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
BuckFan

Think of it as a $2 Billion jobs program. It is work that can't be outsourced since it is top-secret and has to be done by US citizens or permanent residents. It will keep a lot of people employed for a few years.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Fully Featured & Customizable Free Forums
Learn More · Register Now
« Previous Topic · UnitedStates.com FOREIGN* & DEFENSE · Next Topic »
Add Reply