The New Nuclear Arms Race

[Purveyor]

By Katrina vanden Heuvel December 15

On a frigid day in February 1994, William Perry was sworn in as President Bill Clinton’s secretary of defense. Perry would take over at the Pentagon during one of the most fluid times in geopolitical history — between the end of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. During his time in office, Perry was one of the architects of a strategy he called “preventive defense,” the goal of which was to reduce global threats rather than just contain them. The greatest threat of all was nuclear, as fears spread about such weapons falling into rogue hands.

Two decades later, Perry has written a new book, “My Journey at the Nuclear Brink,” in which he offers a dire warning: “Far from continuing the nuclear disarmament that has been underway for the last two decades, we are starting a new nuclear arms race.”

This is not hyperbole. The United States and Russia are acting with increasing belligerence toward each other while actively pursuing monstrous weapons. As Joe Cirincione described in the Huffington Post, the Pentagon plans to spend $1 trillion over 30 years on “an entire new generation of nuclear bombs, bombers, missiles and submarines,” including a dozen submarines carrying more than 1,000 warheads, capable of decimating any country anywhere. In the meantime, President Obama has ordered 200 new nuclear bombs deployed in Europe.

Russia has been at least as aggressive. As Cirincione described, Russian state media recently revealed plans for a new kind of a weapon — a hydrogen bomb torpedo — that can traverse 6,000 miles of ocean just as a missile would in the sky. On impact, the bomb would create a “radioactive tsunami,” designed to kill millions along a country’s coast.

MORE...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-new-nuclear-arms-race/2015/12/11/83445bc0-a021-11e5-bce4-708fe33e3288_story.html

[l.o.o.s.e.e-2]

1. Thank you for this: I like her

If I might humbly, and sadly, add to her presentation: take a gander at this publication out of think-tank Center for a New American Security (CNAS);

http://www.cnas.org/Nuclear-Strategy-and-Posture-2030, specifically http://www.cnas.org/sites/default/files/publications-pdf/CNASReport-NuclearStrategy2030-151020_0.pdf (A Nuclear Strategy and Posture for 2030)

Page 3:

At the same time, because of the growing competitiveness of the military forces of its potential adversaries, the United States will not be able to rely so significantly and so confidently on its nonnuclear forces to deter and, if necessary, to prevail against its and its allies’ opponents. This means that the United States may need to consider shifting more weight on to its nuclear forces in order to compensate for the diminished coercive power of its conventional military.

Diminished coercive power... nuclear... prevailing? Dark times.

Project For A New American Century (PNAC) Reboot: CNAS, the Democratic version of conquest imperialism http://thenewsdoctors.com/project-for-a-new-american-century-pnac-reboot-cnas-the-democratic-version-of-conquest-imperialism/

Center for a New American Security - Profile - Right Web - Institute for Policy Studies http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/center_for_a_new_american_security

[Hal Bent]

2. "On a frigid day in February 1994, William Perry was sworn in..."

Great article, but don't try telling me that Vanden Heuvel was not punning about William "The Fridge" Perry of the 1985 Chicago Bears!