Lt. Gen. Jack Weinstein the deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence, today argued for the US to advance on a costly proposal to modernize and upgrade their massive arsenal of nuclear weapons, insisting that the “much more aggressive” behavior by Russia justified such a move.
Weinstein, an Air Force general whose puvieww is mostly the US nuclear arsenal, argued that history had shown that keeping huge numbers of nuclear weapons on hand “basically kept the peace” since World War II, and that he sleeps very well at night knowing the US has such a large arsenal.
Weinstein’s argument that the move is “justified” ignores the question of whether it is affordable, as estimates have put the modernization scheme’s overall cost well in excess of a trillion dollars, above and beyond an already massive military budget that continues to grow annually.
But like most generals, he wants more and newer weapons. Indeed, Weinstein argued that the US nuclear arsenal is mostly the product of the 1960s, and that while there was an upgrade in the 1980s that the US should’ve done similar upgrade around 2001, and was overdue.
The push will likely be welcomed by the Trump Administration, as President Trump has argued that the US has “fallen behind” in nuclear weapons, and needs to have the top arsenal in the world, even though by most metrics, they already have one.
Come on now. Who is going to be there after the first launches to launch the rest?
Computers
It will be the continuity of government folks in Cheyney Mountain or some super secret redoubt.
The ‘fallen behind’ argument is absurd.
1. It ignores the $8B per year that we invest in ABM R&D that threatens Russia’s nuclear deterrent.
2. It ignores advances like the superfuse that makes our current arsenal more accurate in a first strike.
These are two developments that Russia has to counter.
(puvieww) ???? Will we get a good view of the pu…?????
We need to rebuke Necons HRC & VJ Nuland for their assaults and murders of democratically elected forces in Ukraine which kicked of the tit for tat debacle which set this entire mess in motion… We are just lucky it didn’t start WWIII…!!!!!!!!!!
“We are just lucky it didn’t start WWIII…!!!!!!!!!!”
We don’t know yet what it started, because we don’t know yet how bad it will get.
Our neocons and hawks in the national security infrastructure (Deep State) are still pushing.
It didn’t start WW3 so now you can relax and stop worrying. Right?
Trump won’t escalate the situation and start WW3. Right?
There has been no such Russian “aggression.”
There was US aggression. The Russians did react, but only moderately.
That is not a reason to build nukes.
Anyway, it is all conventional warfare, and so has nothing to do with nuclear deterrence.
Is Weinstein talking on behalf of the commander in chief?
quote: “The push will likely be welcomed by the Trump Administration,…….”
Every day we get more proof of what Trump and his Republican party really do represent. And every day it’s one more nail to drive into Raimondo’s literary coffin.
When will you have heard enough Raimondo?
Yes, it’s spectacularly expensive. A clear violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and thus international law, is the more relevant point the article should have made.