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Barack Obama Ready to Slash US Nuclear Arsenal

Sunday 20 September 2009

by: Julian Borger  |  The Guardian UK

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The largest intercontinental ballistic missile ever built by the United States (pictured) now sits in the Titan Missile Museum in Arizona. President Obama's eventual goal is to abolish all nuclear weapons. (Photo: kingdafy / Flickr)

    Pentagon told to map out radical cuts as president prepares to chair UN talks.

    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 Pentagon's first draft of the "nuclear posture review" as being too timid, and has called for a range of more far-reaching options consistent with his goal of eventually abolishing nuclear weapons altogether, according to European officials.

    Those options include:

  • Reconfiguring the US nuclear force to allow for an arsenal measured in hundreds rather than thousands of deployed strategic warheads.
  • Redrafting nuclear doctrine to narrow the range of conditions under which the US would use nuclear weapons.
  • Exploring ways of guaranteeing the future reliability of nuclear weapons without testing or producing a new generation of warheads.

    •     To read more about President Obama's plans for nuclear cuts, click here

      

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    Comments

    This is a moderated forum.  It may take a little while for comments to go live. Be civil and on-topic, don't threaten or advocate violence, please keep it under 300 words. Thanks for participating.

    "Dmitry Medvedev, said today

     Mon, 09/21/2009 - 16:48 — eval (WWII) (not verified)
    "Dmitry Medvedev, said today that chances were "quite high" that a deal to reduce arsenals to 1,500 warheads each would be signed by the end of the year." MY GOD! Both we and the Russians are going to feel stark naked and oh so vulnerable with only 1,500 doomsday machines aimed at each other. This would drastically reduce our capability to destroy all life on earth to only a few hundred times.

    He was "ready" to reform

     Mon, 09/21/2009 - 19:51 — LiceChrist (not verified)
    He was "ready" to reform health care too.

    Two things. First, 1500

     Mon, 09/21/2009 - 20:13 — Jim The Beam (not verified)
    Two things. First, 1500 strategic warheads. Does not count tactical warheads. It does not count stock piles. Second, reduction to 1500 is to be followed by a further deep cut. The short term goal is to discuss deployment in hundreds not thousands of warheads. Still, hundreds are many more than required to create hell on earth. A question I have. If the world does move seriously toward full disarmament of nuclear weapons, until or unless they are all gone, there appears to be a period where there are just a few left with only one country. It may be a tempting time to use it as they would not face retaliation, which is the basis for the MAD strategy used since the '60s. How do we move past that period?

    In addition to cutting the

     Mon, 09/21/2009 - 20:59 — Anonymous (not verified)
    In addition to cutting the nuclear arsenal by 80-90%, let's do the same with the wars of choice, and the global military bases unsustainably maintained by taxpayers. Then, take the hundreds of billions of dollars no longer flowing to the military, and provide healthcare and a college education to every American citizen. Let's drown the noise machine coming from the right wing about how people want everything for free, like freedom, and healthcare, and an education. We need to stuff all that back up the chute. Americans work and pay taxes for these very things, not to give it to corporations who make war and death, and invest other people's money wrecklessly, and sell people dangerous drugs through billions in advertising. That's our money, and we want to use it on other things!

    Another empty suit fiasco in

     Tue, 09/22/2009 - 12:16 — Anonymous (not verified)
    Another empty suit fiasco in the making. I hope it takes more than 4 years to pass so the next president will have an opportunity to stop it.

    "...his goal of eventually

     Wed, 09/23/2009 - 02:09 — Remember the Constitution? (not verified)
    "...his goal of eventually abolishing nuclear weapons altogether". Let's try a little test first. You try to hurt me, I have a gun and you don't. Now, we get rid of our nukes while Iran, North Korea, and others still have them. Get a clue dorks!