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America’s nuclear weapons – unnecessary and expensive

Americans, for the first time in their history, face the prospect of total annihilation. In addition, the U.S. government has vast superiority over all other countries when it comes to conventional war.

How Many Nuclear Weapons Does the U.S. Government Need?, THE HUFFINGTON POST, Lawrence Wittner , 26 Oct 10, A good case can be made that the U.S. government, the first to develop nuclear weapons, would be much better off today without them.

They fail to deter war (which has raged on ceaselessly among nuclear and non-nuclear nations since World War II), they are enormously costly, and — thanks to the nuclear arms race that followed the U.S. nuclear weapons breakthrough of 1945 — Americans, for the first time in their history, face the prospect of total annihilation. In addition, the U.S. government has vast superiority over all other countries when it comes to conventional war.

Yes, the nuclear hawks admit, but nuclear weapons deter a nuclear attack on the United States by other nations. But do they? And, even if they do provide a deterrent to a nuclear attack, how many are needed for this purpose?

Recent action by British officials casts new light on this issue. Based on a Strategic Defense and Security Review, Britain’s new Conservative-headed government decided this October to cut its stockpile of nuclear warheads by 25 percent, reducing it from 225 to 180……..

Nor has the Obama administration entirely lived up to its rhetoric about creating a nuclear weapons-free world. Perhaps as an incentive to Republican Senators to ratify the New START Treaty, it has announced plans to spend $180 billion to upgrade the U.S. nuclear weapons complex in the next two decades.

Overall, then, it appears that the U.S. government’s desire for nuclear weapons far outruns its need for them — even by the logic of nuclear deterrence….

Lawrence Wittner: How Many Nuclear Weapons Does the U.S. Government Need?

October 26, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, uranium