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Senseless Cold War nuclear arsenal – obsolete system

We have a Cold War nuclear arsenal built to defend us from “Mad Men”-era threats. But those threats, like the three-martini lunch, are a thing of the past. And the over half a trillion dollars we’re goingto spend on maintaining that bloated arsenal over the next decade will be a half trillion less we can spend on the training and equipment our
troops need to face 21st-century threats.

Blunt: Costs of U.S. nuclear posture senseless Online Athens By ROGER R. BLUNT, October 22, 2012 Fifty years ago the biggest event in human history almost happened. During a fateful 13-day period in October 1962, the Soviet Union and the United States balanced at the brink of nuclear war as the Soviets attempted to establish nuclear bases in Cuba.

I had just graduated with my degree in nuclear engineering from MIT
and reported to the Army nuclear power program at Fort Belvoir in
Virginia. All of us spent the week glued to the TV wondering if the
world’s first nuclear war was about to begin. I will never forget the
relief we felt when we learned that, thanks to the vision and
restraint of a handful of people, this point in history would be
marked by what did not occur…..
We have a Cold War nuclear arsenal built to defend us from “Mad Men”-era threats. But those threats, like the three-martini lunch, are a thing of the past. And the over half a trillion dollars we’re goingto spend on maintaining that bloated arsenal over the next decade will be a half trillion less we can spend on the training and equipment our
troops need to face 21st-century threats.
Today, President Obama has the opportunity to bring a Cold War-era
policy into the 21st century and is readying a presidential policy
review for our thousands-strong nuclear arsenal. What the president
decides to do impacts everything from where and how the weapons are
targeted to whether or not we reshape our stockpile to reflect modern
needs….
Reshaping our nuclear force is an issue of vision and conscience. We
need the vision to recognize our world has changed, and we can’t allow
pork-barrel spending and bureaucratic inertia to shape our national
security priorities.
As a matter of conscience, we should remember that weapons are still
pointed at civilian targets, and we haven’t even adopted appropriate
safeguards that would reduce the chance of accidental launch. A single
strike on a city can kill millions of people. And if the United States
remains mired in Cold War attitudes, it makes it harder for us to lead
in the effort to reduce and lock up nuclear stockpiles in other
countries, which increases the risk of a nuclear weapon falling into
the hands of terrorists.
It’s up to the president to buck bureaucratic inertia and have the
vision to confront the threats and costs our bloated stockpile has
created. Recently, more than 100 political and faith leaders signed a
joint letter asking the president to do just that. They join military
leaders like former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry and former
chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sam Nunn, who have
long pushed policy-makers to reduce the role of weapons in security
strategy, trim stockpiles and shave millions from the budget. I hope
the president and Congress listen.
• Maj. Gen. Roger R. Blunt, Ret., commanded the 97th Army Reserve
Command and earned the Distinguished Service Medal. He served with the
Army Corps of Engineers as an Atomic Energy Officer.
http://onlineathens.com/opinion/2012-10-22/blunt-costs-us-nuclear-posture-senseless

October 23, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war