Sunday, January 15, 2017

Reuters — Trump says wants nuclear arsenals cut 'very substantially'


Starting out on the right foot. This alone would be a major achievement.

Reuters
Trump says wants nuclear arsenals cut 'very substantially'

9 comments:

Penguin pop said...

January 20th can't come soon enough.

Andrew Anderson said...

The problem is that the US might be even more tempted to do a first strike if it has fewer targets to hit.

Also, let's not forget the value of weapons that threaten the lives of the elites since that tends to make them more peace loving. I, for one, don't want to make the world safer for war-mongers.

Noah Way said...

Andrew: The current US nuclear stockpile is > 7,000, or half the global total (armscontrol.org). Russia has about the same number and the rest of the world has about 1,000.

There are only 330 or so cities in the world with a population over 1 million. With that arsenal the US could vaporize each one 21 times.

Andrew Anderson said...

Well, I've read Minute Men missiles might accidentally launch. And once launched they have no self-destruct. Those should go.

John said...

Every president says that! It's apple pie. It's the details that matter. First, is he serious. Second, if he is serious, is he simply going to replace old nukes with new generation mini-nukes and higher payload nukes? In which case, the status quo is probably better than cutting the number of nukes.

Tom Hickey said...

Every president says that! It's apple pie. It's the details that matter.

Exactly.

Same with replacing the ACA with affordable insurance that covers everybody with low deductibles.

But at least DJT has the right idea to start with.

Noah Way said...

The details will be worked out by hordes of corporate lawyers and lobbyists who will tell their congressional reps exactly what to do.

Andrew said...

Why DOES this matter? If you cut it in half, so what? I suppose it reduces outside risks (terrorism, accident, etc.).

John said...

Andrew, that's a good point. If you cut this lunatic arsenal in half, then you go from being able to blow the world to kingdom come from twenty times over down to ten times over. You're right about accidents. The accident rate is frightening. The leading experts have said that is is a "miracle" that humans still walk the earth. There have been many accidental launches, with someone having to cancel the launch. The Russians have twice been in a position in which they believed the country has been obliterated but still refused to launch! A few years ago a USAF plane was flew over major cities not realising it was carrying a nuclear payload! An accident is just waiting to happen, and the things that exist now could wipe out millions, and may initiate accidentally initiate a response. The whole thing is insane.

That idiot monster Reagan was offered by Gorbachev a deal in which both sides would rid themselves of ALL nukes. This would have led to worldwide disarmament. Reagan of course said no. Empire and all that.