Free Republic

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...

The United States on Tuesday revealed the number of warheads in the country’s nuclear arsenal for the first time in four years, ending a Trump-era blackout on the figure. The number of nuclear weapons — both active and inactive — in the US military’s stockpile stood at 3,750 as of September 30, 2020, according to the data released Tuesday. The figure is down from 3,785 in 2018. As recently as 2003, the United States’ nuclear weapon stockpile was just above 10,000. In 1967, at the height of the cold war with Russia, the country’s nuclear reserve peaked with a total...

.... Several U.S. officials briefed on the options told me they include declaring a “no first use” policy for the United States’ nuclear arsenal, which would be a landmark change in the country’s nuclear posture. Another option under consideration is seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution affirming a ban on the testing of nuclear weapons. This would be a way to enshrine the United States’ pledge not to test without having to seek unlikely Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The administration is also considering offering Russia a five-year extension of the New START treaty’s limits on deployed...

A former commander of U.S. nuclear forces is leading a call for taking U.S. and Russian nuclear missiles off high alert, arguing that keeping them less ready for prompt launch would reduce the risk of miscalculation in a crisis. It also could keep a possible cyberattack from starting a nuclear war, he said, although neither Washington nor Moscow appears interested in negotiating an agreement to end the practice of keeping nuclear missiles on high alert. Retired Gen. James Cartwright said in an interview that “de-alerting” nuclear arsenals could foil cyber intruders by reducing the chance of firing a weapon in...

With the recent announcement that the European Union is seeking to start its own nuclear program with a view to getting a nuclear deterrent (weapons), we should remember that this is all being done with the European population largely in ignorance. During a debate that took place in 2014, between Nigel Farage and Nick Clegg (former British Deputy Prime Minister), the latter took great pains to state that there was no such thing as an EU Army and that such talk was a “Dangerous Fantasy”, and even more that the EU had no plans for one. Here’s the video: Did...

WASHINGTON — Americans following this year's presidential campaign would never know it from mainstream media coverage, but the commander in chief we hired four years ago has set the United States on a course for unilateral disarmament. The following people hope you won't notice until after Nov. 6: Vladimir Putin, Liang Guanglie, Kim Jong-un, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, A.Q. Khan and of course, Barack Obama. The 10 individuals above share a common fascination: nuclear weapons. Vladimir Putin, Russia's modern czar; Liang Guanglie, minister of national defense for...

The foundation of America’s nuclear arsenal is fractured, and the government has no clear plan to repair it. The cracks appear not just in the military forces equipped with nuclear weapons but also in the civilian bureaucracy that controls them, justifies their cost, plans their future and is responsible for explaining a defense policy that says nuclear weapons are at once essential and excessive. It’s not clear that the government recognizes the full scope of the problem, which has wormed its way to the core of the nuclear weapons business without disturbing bureaucracies fixated on defending their own turf. Nor...

Western countries that supported Ukraine’s 1994 nuclear disarmament agreement should provide more effective help against Russia, or Kyiv will restart building up a nuclear arsenal, said Vladimir Ogryzko, a former Ukrainian foreign minister. The only measure that could ensure Ukraine’s security is to abandon the Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (TNPNW), said Ogryzko, who served as foreign minister in the government of Yulia Tymoshenko in 2007-2009. Ukraine renounced its nuclear arsenal in 1994, when it signed the Treaty for the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (TNPNW) with Russia, the USA and the UK, relinquishing weapons inherited from the former USSR....

Video at link: The Air Force’s two star general in charge of the units responsible for its 450 nuclear missiles has been fired “due to a loss of trust and confidence in his leadership and judgment.” Maj. Gen. Michael Carey has been removed from command of the 20th Air Force, according to an Air Force statement. That command is responsible for the three wings that maintain control of the 450 intercontinental ballistic missiles scattered in missile silos across the northern plains. Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, the commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, made the decision because of what the...

The Air Force just announced the firing of a 2-star general named Michael Carey. He was in command of the 20th Air Force, with 450 ICBMs under his control. His boss, Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, said, "It's unfortunate that I've had to relieve an officer who's had an otherwise distinctive career spanning 35 years of commendable service." The reason officially given was "conduct" and somebody leaked that it was alcohol abuse. Perhaps that is the true and only reason, but something seems odd here. A quick internet search reveals Carey as a model officer who joined as an enlisted man...

The Air Force removed Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, a 35-year veteran, from his command of 20th Air Force, responsible for all 450 of the service's intercontinental ballistic missiles. Carey, who took his post in Wyoming in June 2012, will be reassigned pending the outcome of an investigation into personal misbehavior, the service said. The Air Force would not specify what Carey is alleged to have done wrong, but two officials with knowledge of the investigation indicated that it was linked to alcohol use.

<p>The top general in charge of the U.S. Air Force's entire arsenal of nuclear weapons has been relieved of his command due to loss of trust, defense officials told NBC News.</p> <p>The officials would not say what led to the firing of Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, but said it had nothing to do with his command of the nuclear stockpile or any form of sexual impropriety.</p>

So - what do you think are the odds that within a few weeks of each other, two 34-year-old black people from Brooklyn, New York, with nothing in common so far as is known, begin acting out in the same U.S. city in such a manifestly dangerous manner after claiming to have been exposed to vague, arcane technology that they wind up having to be put down like animals by the local constabulary?

Weaponry: As the commander in chief calls for a one-third reduction in our nuclear arsenal, Russia builds new midrange missile banned under a 1987 arms treaty. How's that "reset" button working out, Mr. President? Trust but verify, said the president who won the Cold War. Ronald Reagan's "peace through strength" philosophy has been replaced with the "peace through parchment" strategy of Barack Obama. It emphasizes flexibility, not resolve, and relies on pacts such as the New Start Treaty and the pressing of imaginary reset buttons. Russia's playing host to Edward Snowden, arguably a traitor with secrets to share with Moscow...

Scientists who have worked for more than a decade on a multibillion-dollar project to mimic the energy of the hydrogen bomb in experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have encountered so many difficulties, they have already missed their deadline and are unlikely to achieve success soon, government experts warn. The lab's National Ignition Facility was designed to be a substitute for underground tests of nuclear weapons, which had become a political impossibility by the early 1990s. Without testing, the nation has no way to determine the safety and reliability of its aging arsenal of atomic weapons. The National Ignition Facility...

Defense: The administration proudly reveals a state secret to our enemies before a U.N. conference on nuclear nonproliferation. It wants to lead by example on disarmament, but Iran and North Korea aren't following. Not since the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact that sought to outlaw war as an instrument of national policy has there been such a stunning display of dangerous naivete. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton disclosed U.S. nuclear secrets to the U.N. conference while proudly proclaiming it showed America is sending "a clear, unmistakable signal" that this nation is committed to nuclear disarmament. Kellogg-Briand laid the groundwork for Munich in...

Weasel Zipper blogger "Free Thinker" asks, "Is Obama a fool or a traitor?" Based on what I know about Obama, he's more the latter than the former. But ultimately? He qualifies for both. To which I would add: "dangerous to America's well-being".WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has 5,113 nuclear warheads in its stockpile and “several thousand” more retired warheads awaiting the junkpile, the Pentagon said Monday in an unprecedented accounting of a secretive arsenal born in the Cold War and now shrinking rapidly.The Obama administration disclosed the size of its atomic stockpile going back to 1962 as part of...

The United States expressed hope Wednesday that North Korea would see no implicit threat in the new U.S. nuclear weapons policy and bolster its own nuclear arsenal. The Obama administration Tuesday released the Nuclear Posture Review report, declaring that it will not attack non-nuclear weapons states with nuclear warheads. But that does not include North Korea and Iran, which have failed to abide by international nuclear nonproliferation obligations, the report said. "We don't believe there would be any justification for using this NPR for such a reason," Robert Einhorn, special adviser on nonproliferation and arms control to Secretary of State...

Note: The following text is a quote: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-barack-obama-release-nuclear-posture-review Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release April 06, 2010 Statement by President Barack Obama on the Release of Nuclear Posture Review One year ago yesterday in Prague, I outlined a comprehensive agenda to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and to pursue the peace and security of a world without them. I look forward to advancing this agenda in Prague this week when I sign the new START Treaty with President Medvedev, committing the United States and Russia to...

Obama promised to neuter America before the election in one of his campaign ads to supporters: That was one promise he decided to keep. As promised, Barack Obama will go ahead with his plan to weaken America's stand in the world. The Guardian reported today that Obama is pushing a radical plan to eliminate not hundreds but thousands of the nation's strategic warheads, via Free Republic. Barack Obama has demanded the Pentagon conduct a radical review of US nuclear weapons doctrine to prepare the way for deep cuts in the country's arsenal, the Guardian can reveal. Obama has rejected the...