A new version of the defense policy bill was introduced today in the House Armed Services Committee, and looks to stop all development of low-yield nuclear warheads, while severely limiting development of a new ballistic missile.
The Pentagon has been interested in the development of low-yield nuclear weapons for some time, and President Trump has also been interested in developing nuclear arms which would be practical to use as tactical, not strategic, arms.
The usability factor is why the developments are so controversial. Many are concerned that these developments would greatly lower the threshold for a US nuclear strike, and in the long run might make attacks involving nuclear weapons more commonplace worldwide.
Advocates of this development were deeply critical of the committee’s move, with Reps. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) and Mike Turner (R-OH) accusing them of making America less safe by weakening US nuclear deterrence.
The bill also proposed to ban Conventional Prompt Global Strike Weapon, a system that Pentagon advocates claim would allow the US to attack anywhere on Earth in an hour or less.
The bill also prevents the US from withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty, which allows signatory nations to fly over one another’s nations. Russia and the US are both signatories, and both accuse the other of violating the treaty.
It is not deterrence to use any sort of nukes, as the USA has been attempting to introduce even before Trump, who of course has no clue about nukes or any other sort of scientific matter. MAD stopped nuclear war for decades, and the USA has the disastrous idea of not only sanctioning and threatening nearly every nation on earth, but actually making and using nukes as part of its “defense”.
Defense works best if you make fewer enemies, stop telling everyone else what to do, try to work with and understand other countries and their points of view and do not try to rule the world.
If no one (but the US, presumably) has low-yield nuclear weapons, then it follows that when (not if) a nuclear nation is attacked with a nuclear weapon of any size or yield they will have no response but to toss a high-yield weapon back. Voila! Instant one-upmanship when we respond in kind and- since no one else has low-yield weapons- we can claim ‘the other side’ upped the stakes.