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Nuclear Nuts: Trump’s New Policy Hypes The Threat and Brings Us Closer to War
I don't have enough requisite experience in the field of the US nuclear triad, but Trump has a bevy of far wiser individuals worried.
Related: Pentagon Confirms It’s Developing Nuclear Cruise Missile to Counter a Similar Russian One
Doomsday Clock Is Set at 2 Minutes to Midnight, Closest Since 1950s - The New York Times
By Joe Cirincione
February 2, 2018
Friday afternoon is not usually the time government officials choose to present good news. So, you could sympathize as officials struggled at the Pentagon roll out of President Donald Trump’s controversial new plan for nuclear weapons, called the Nuclear Posture Review, this Friday. They had reason to try to bury the report. Trump’s plan orders an expensive rebuild of America’s Cold War-era arsenal, adds new weapons and new missions, and breaks with decades of bipartisan strategy. Ever since Richard Nixon, American presidents have cut the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, with Republicans leading the way. After modest reductions by President’s Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter, the duo of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush cut the number of weapons by a combined 50 percent; Bill Clinton by just over 20 percent and George W. Bush cut another 50 percent. Barack Obama contributed a comparatively modest 24 percent reduction. But all these presidents sought to reduce the role and number of nuclear weapons in U.S. national security strategy. Down to about 5,000 today, the United States still has the largest, most flexible, capable nuclear force in the world. No U.S. commander would trade our force for that of another nation. Far in excess of any conceivable military need, the Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded in 2012 that we could cut the force by one-third and still fulfill all required military missions.
But that does not fit with Trump’s view that “our nuclear arsenal has been allowed to atrophy” and “our nuclear weapons don’t work.” So this new posture review bends reality to fit his views. It hypes the threat and presents itself as a calm, measured approach perfectly consistent with past policies. It uses the world “flexible” 29 times, “options” 40 times, “tailored” 30 times and “deterrence” a whopping 191 times to soften the grim destructive strategy it proposes. To write his new plan, Trump imported a team of nuclear hawks. “Hawks” may be an understatement. One of the principal authors, Keith Payne, wrote in his 1980 article, “Victory is Possible,” that America should be willing to sacrifice 20 million citizens in a nuclear war. That, he said, was “a level compatible with national survival and recovery.” Others on the team pushed weapons and policies that triggered a small revolt from the Pentagon brass, according to a report in The American Conservative. As one general put it, by pushing to deploy so-called “low-yield” warheads, “Payne and his team were providing Donald Trump with ‘a kind of gateway drug for nuclear war.’” But Americans’ real fears may be closer to home. According to a Washington Post poll over 60 percent of the American public do not trust Trump to make wise decisions on nuclear weapons. About half fear that he will launch a nuclear attack without justification. This new plan gives them a lot more reason to be worried.
I don't have enough requisite experience in the field of the US nuclear triad, but Trump has a bevy of far wiser individuals worried.
Related: Pentagon Confirms It’s Developing Nuclear Cruise Missile to Counter a Similar Russian One
Doomsday Clock Is Set at 2 Minutes to Midnight, Closest Since 1950s - The New York Times
