Posted on 10/11/2017 7:00:26 AM PDT by markomalley
President Donald Trump reportedly demanded a tenfold increase in the size of the American nuclear arsenal this past summer.
During a meeting with several high-ranking national security advisers, the president responded to an image depicting the reduction in the overall size of the nuclear arsenal since the late 1960s by demanding a dramatic increase in America’s nuclear weapons stockpile, reported NBC Wednesday, citing three officials present at the time.
Officials explained to Trump that the U.S. military posture is stronger today than it was when the U.S. was building up its nuclear arsenal, but Trump was said to be adamant that the U.S. should obtain more nuclear weapons, as well as troops and military equipment.
After the meeting, during which the president was briefed on global force operations, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly called Trump a “moron.” NBC has come under heavy fire from Trump and Tillerson for its reporting, with the former repeatedly calling the media outlet “fake news.”
A nuclear buildup could violate certain nonproliferation agreements and could, according to some observers, trigger a global arms race, inspiring both the Chinese and the Russians to increase the sizes of their nuclear arsenals. Russia has reduced the size of its nuclear weapons stockpile, and China has kept its nuclear arsenal small.
Some officials at the meeting reportedly did not take Trump’s interest in more nuclear weapons as a direct order to the military to actually increase the numbers. It is unclear though.
Trump has repeatedly signaled that he wants to enhance America’s nuclear capabilities. He emphasized the need for a modernized nuclear arsenal on Twitter in August, arguing the need to make it “far stronger and more powerful than ever before.”
“Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!” he explained in a follow-up tweet.
NBC is criminally negligent.
Wow! Finally somebody said it! There has to be accountability for the networks, and it is in their licensing. If they are no longer reporting the truth, it is fair to challenge them having a FCC license. But it has to be a process that does not allow the Executive to shut down a network just because he doesn’t like their reporting.
We damn well need to reinstate the flexibility in our ICBMs after Bambi reduced them to a single RV.
And while they are investigating, how about looking into the rampant nepotism, blackmail, payola, graft and corruption between the Democrats and media, that permeated the news during the Obama administration which is still ongoing.
And while they are investigating, how about looking into the rampant nepotism, blackmail, payola, graft and corruption between the Democrats and media, that permeated the news during the Obama administration which is still ongoing.
Even if the story were true I see no problem with it. Trump is the President and controls the military. The other way around would be quite dangerous.
At least the NBC article conctains enough detail that you can argue with it. For instance it states Some officials in the Pentagon meeting were rattled by the president’s desire for more nuclear weapons and his understanding of other national security issues from the Korean peninsula to Iraq and Afghanistan, the officials said.
Nuclear Force Modernization is a broadly accepted priority in the Pentagon. "Even" former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter got behind it after waking up to where the world was going.
At Minot in 2016 Carter stated: how we deter cannot be static. Rather, it must adapt as threats evolve while continuing to preserve strategic stability, reinforcing nuclear restraint rather than inviting competition or attack. That's important, because it illustrates how strong deterrence doesn't lower the threshold for nuclear war. Instead, it raises it. Today, however, it's a sobering fact that the most likely use of nuclear weapons is not the massive nuclear exchange of the classic Cold War-type, but rather the unwise resort to smaller but still unprecedentedly terrible attacks, for example, by Russia or North Korea to try to coerce a conventionally superior opponent to back off or abandon an ally during a crisis. We cannot allow that to happen, which is why we're working with our allies in both regions to innovate and operate in new ways that sustain deterrence continue to preserve strategic stability.
I like the way you think.
“... At least the NBC article contains enough detail that you can argue with it. For instance it states Some officials in the Pentagon...”
A legitimate article would have given some idea of the rank and the importance of “some officials.” Anyone who has ever worked in the Pentagon knows damned well that it’s corridors are stalked by individuals of little talent.
The unbalanced Daily Caller hit piece is far worse. It is a low bar to crawl under NBC’s standard of journalism, but DC pulled it off with style.
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