Posted on 02/23/2010 10:02:56 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The United States has informally told Japan it will retire its sea-based Tomahawk cruise missiles carrying nuclear warheads, in line with President Barack Obama's policy to pursue a world free of atomic weapons, government sources said Monday.
Washington said the move would not affect the nuclear umbrella, addressing concerns in Tokyo about the step's effect on U.S. deterrence against potential attacks from China, North Korea or other countries, the sources said.
The retirement will probably be stipulated in the Nuclear Posture Review, a new nuclear strategic guideline the Obama administration is slated to submit to Congress next month, they said.
U.S. subs carrying nuclear-tipped Tomahawks called in Japan during the Cold War, but the missiles were later removed for storage at bases on the U.S. mainland.
Their retirement will also likely affect debate in Japan over Tokyo's ongoing investigation into a secret pact with Washington to allow the U.S. military to bring nuclear weapons to Japan, because decommissioning will rule out the possibility of nuclear missiles coming into the country.
Past port calls and passage through Japanese waters by submarines armed with Tomahawks have raised controversy in terms of Tokyo's three nonnuclear principles of not possessing, producing or allowing nuclear arms on its territory
(Excerpt) Read more at search.japantimes.co.jp ...
That sounds about right.
What is to keep the Chinese from nuking our carrier fleet a thousand miles east of the Taiwan Straits now?
It’s my understanding the tactical nukes are the air umbrella threat used to get the carrier battle groups toward Taiwan in case of invasion?
Exactly. He will strip us of nukes on the (false) premise that the rest of the world will follow our good example. Obama is either an incompetent or a charlatan or both. Words fail me.
nobama is PURPOSEFULLY attempting to destroy the United States: financially, culturally and systematically. He smiles, his addled supporters applaud, yet this is what he is doing.
He's not "smoking" anything. He's not insane, foolish, or stupid, either. (Not that he's anywhere near the genius he thinks he is ...)
He has an agenda for destroying these United States of America, and he's pursuing said agenda on many fronts. Unilateral disarmament is one of them.
IOW, he's not moronic, he's demonic.
He's not a looney, he's a muzzie.
He's not a fool, he's a traitor.
>>”...in terms of Tokyo’s three nonnuclear principles of not possessing, producing or allowing nuclear arms on its territory.”
Words on paper. How quickly will these words be changed if we pull out of Japan and Korea; and China decides to get frisky? How many shiploads of PLUTONIUM has Japan gotten from France’s reprocessing of nuclear fuel? Two? Three?
This is not what our Ballistic missile submarines carry. We will still have nuclear missile at sea that can still fly half way around the world. Submarines have no carried nuclear tomahawks for a very very long time, this is a cold war weapon. It is the same for nuclear torpedos, we had them, we haven’t carried these in a long time. If we ever need these, I am dead sure we can get them. But for the time being coventional Tomahawks are what we will need for Iran and our other threats.
I think the Japanese are complaining about the nuclear reactor that drives the ship, not the weapons the ship has.
They said “Thanks Obama!”
They are probably obsolete by now. I know Tomahawk was not a particularly successful naval missile (too slow).
On Sept. 27, 1991, (George H.W.) Bush announced a raft of unilateral initiatives to limit and reduce the U.S. tactical nuclear weapons arsenal.[2] Specifically, he pledged to:•withdraw to the United States all ground-launched short-range weapons deployed overseas and destroy them along with existing U.S. stockpiles of the same weapons; and
•cease deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on surface ships, attack submarines, and land-based naval aircraft during “normal circumstances.” Implicitly, the United States reserved the right to redeploy these arms in a crisis.
Destroying them means we couldn't redeploy them to naval platforms in a crisis.
What is this communist smoking?
He’s not “smoking” anything. He’s not insane, foolish, or stupid, either. (Not that he’s anywhere near the genius he thinks he is ...)
He has an agenda for destroying these United States of America, and he’s pursuing said agenda on many fronts. Unilateral disarmament is one of them.
IOW, he’s not moronic, he’s demonic.
He’s not a looney, he’s a muzzie.
He’s not a fool, he’s a traitor.
_______________________________________
You are exactly right. The man is pure, hatefull evil. Evil hates good and he hates the United States and all it stands for.
And all those Czars are working quietly behind the scenes doing their evil deeds.
Health Care “reform” is smoke and mirrors while things evil are going on behind the scenes.
Islam teaches that it is honorable and required to deceive and lie to one’s enemies.
Everything, I repeat, everything this evil creature is detrimental to America.
Show Spelled[tree-zuhn] Show IPA –noun
1. the betrayal of a trust or confidence; breach of faith; treachery; seeking to harm one's nation.
Also there is a cost to maintain the tac nukes in a usable
condition. I’d like to believe that the pits will be recycled into newer, more relevant systems capable of
penetrating certain hardened sites of interest, on the QT.
No.
Those were the GLCMs (Ground Launched Cruise Missiles) that were part of the INF treaty.
Sea-based weapons weren’t affected.
And England, which had the most GLCMs.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.