Posted on 10/27/2008 9:02:11 PM PDT by pasr
WASHINGTON - The U.S. arsenal of nuclear weapons is declining in power and purpose while the military's competence in handling the world's most dangerous arms has eroded. At the same time, international efforts to contain the spread of such weapons look ineffective. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, for one, wants the next president to think about what nuclear middle age and decline mean for national security.
Gates joins a growing debate about the reliability and future credibility of the American arsenal with his first extensive speech tomorrow on nuclear arms. The debate is attracting increasing attention inside the Pentagon even as the military is preoccupied with fighting insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. The unconventional tools of war there include covert commandos, but not nuclear weapons.
Gates is expected to call for increased commitment to preserving the deterrent value of atomic weapons. Their chief focus has evolved from World War II enemies to the Soviets. Now the vast U.S. stockpile serves mainly to make any other nation think twice about developing or using even a crude nuclear device of its own.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, wrote in the current issue of an internal publication, Joint Force Quarterly, that the United States is overdue to retool its nuclear strategy. He referred to nuclear deterrence - the idea that the credible threat of U.S. nuclear retaliation is enough by itself to stop a potential enemy from striking first with a weapon of mass destruction.
"Many, if not most, of the individuals who worked deterrence in the 1970s and 1980s - the real experts at this discipline - are not doing it anymore," Mullen wrote. "And we have not even tried to find their replacements."
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
Pi$$ me off headline of the night.
more crapaganda from the AP.
Rubber bullets and diplomacy, with an emphasis on the latter.
Obama will want the USA to disarm. You know the UN and all that goody stuff. Yep I would bet on it!! Maybe this is what Biden is talking about.
This is actually a good issue for McCain.
Obama has specifically said he will not update the nuclear arsenal.
US considering implications of nuclear decline
See also:
Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Who’s to guess what power will arise in the near future? South America, China, Russia, The Middle East...I rest easy at night knowing we have reliable nukes sitting in their silos.
Good Lord, what a bunch of meaningless double-talk.
It’s bad enough that they are pushing an agenda, but at least be coherent about it.
Dump some of the “declining” stockpile on the AP.
I’ll see you in the streets!
No, this particular story is true. Trust me on this.
“The U.S. arsenal of nuclear weapons is declining in power and purpose while the military’s competence in handling the world’s most dangerous arms has eroded.”
I probably shouldn’t comment because I can’t stand reading AP articles, but that sentence makes no sense to me. How has the US arsenal declined in power and purpose? I assume our nuclear weapons still are capable of blowing things up. And, because even if the Iranians get the bomb, we will be able to turn Iran into a parking lot, I assume our arsenal has as much of a purpose as it did during the days of the Soviet Union.
Of course, the Messiah thinks all of the nuts out there will be so in love with him that they’ll behave, so spending on nukes probably will be cut if he’s elected.
The issue of Iran alone makes it necessary to keep Obama out of the White House.
AP should be mulling the decline of something a little bit closer to it’s front door.
Nothing a 25% cut in defense budgets wouldn’t fix.
Without going into detail these weapons do age, and parts can be reused. Just because it looks like a drawdown doesn't mean that it actually is one.
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