Posted on 08/01/2023 9:13:37 AM PDT by Twotone
The late George Shultz, former secretary of state for Ronald Reagan and a Cold Warrior, once advised against proliferating nuclear weapons. He quipped that “proliferation begets proliferation,” which the arms control lobby has used for decades to prevent the U.S. government from developing nukes.
But Shultz’s quip is easily falsifiable. A decade of Russian, Chinese, North Korean, and soon Iranian proliferation has not begotten proliferation by the United States.
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with Russia went into effect in 2011. It reduced the high-yield (and misguidedly called strategic) nuclear weapons each side has and puts a cap on their totals.
Until a few months ago, when Russia suspended its participation, both sides were abiding by it. But, unlike the United States, Russia treated it as a green light to develop low-yield, short- and intermediate-range nuclear weapons—best described as theater nukes. The U.S. government believes that Russia has ten times as many such weapons as the United States.
China’s not falling behind. Two years ago, the Middlebury Institute, using satellite imagery, found hundreds of new Chinese missile silos. While the communist regime’s total number of warheads is believed to be one-tenth of America’s (and estimates vary), the consensus is that the number of Chinese nukes doubled from 2020 to 2022, from 200 to 400.
As the rivalry accelerates, Chinese proliferation will also pick up more steam, and the United States could find itself in parity, even behind, the Chinese in this decade.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Si vis pacem, para bellum.................
Of course... MIC... MIC... MIC...
There is a move to upgrade the land based ICBM fleet but that will soon be mired in the political crap that these systems have to go through. Historically, that will delay and dilute the effectiveness of the new system. The B-1 and B-2 were classic examples of that.
It is imperative that we maintain an effective deterrent not only against peer adversaries but also third world tinpot dictators who seek to join the "nuclear club". Make no mistake, they are waiting for a moment when they want to humiliate us with our weakness to respond to their theatrics.
Had to double check the author to make sure it wasn’t linda Graham, famous warmonger.
Yes but what does General Buck Turgidson think?
Russia has 7,000 nukes the same way they have 12,000 tanks.
First things first, they want our military to all sit down and pee rather than stand then well see about nukes.
Currently at DEFCON 3, should be DEFCON 2 at least. I am the biggest, meanest dog on the block. The world needs to understand that fact.
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