A Real and Present Danger: Trump Calls for a New Nuclear Arms Race

Rasa - As if the threat of global terrorism and new wars are not enough, President Donald Trump says the United States intends to conduct a massive expansion of its nuclear weapons arsenal, with an eye toward building a number “far, far in excess of anybody else.”

News ID: 436423

Date: 14 February 2018 - 23:58

RNA - But the US already has the largest nuclear arsenal on the planet, a fact President Trump has often overlooked in previous comments. Numerically US warheads are roughly in line with Russia’s, and either of those two has far more nuclear arms than the whole rest of the world. Still, Trump insists the US will stop building nukes if everyone else stops, but insists that since “others are doing it,” the US needs “a nuclear force that will be absolutely modernized and brand-new.”

As things stand now, nobody really doubts the power of America’s nuclear weapons. Its arsenal is already a lot more destructive than anyone else’s. Moreover, nobody really doubts its ability to blow things up all over the world without using a nuclear bomb. The United States has been conducting illegal drone, air, and cruise missile strikes in many Muslim countries for many years now, and it has even used the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (the largest conventional bomb in the US arsenal) in Afghanistan.

So, what is the strategic problem that Trump’s vow to expand the US nuclear arsenal is going to solve? Does he really expect Russia or China to give up vital interests because the United States acquires a slightly more flexible set of nuclear capabilities? Are there any countries likely to be significantly more intimidated by US development of new nuclear bombs? Will violent extremists like Al-Qaeda or ISIL (America’s own creations) suddenly cease their activities after the Trump regime upgrades its ability to put nuclear weapons in more places more rapidly? The questions answer themselves:

By calling for expansion of US nuclear arsenal with smaller-yield weapons and more flexible nuclear targeting abilities, the Trump administration deliberately seeks to lower the nuclear threshold. It wants the US to acquire capabilities that will make other states think the US can use these weapons more readily in the future, in the hope that this capability will make those states more inclined to do what it wants - or not to do what it doesn’t want.

Far from it, there are big risks here. Rather obviously, expanding and making nuclear weapons more usable makes it more likely that they will in fact be used - sooner or later. And because the US has used nuclear weapons in the past and still has no idea how other states will respond once the nuclear threshold has been crossed, expanding and making nuclear use more likely is a risk it really does not want to take.

More so, Trump’s decision to expand America’s nuclear arsenal sends a clear message to the rest of the world. It says that even if you are the world’s largest economy, with hundreds of illegal military bases across the globe, no enemies nearby and no adversaries openly seeking to overthrow your government, you still need lots of highly sophisticated and expensive nuclear weapons to be secure.

Unfortunately, that message will make it hard to convince other nations like North Korea that they don’t need nuclear weapons to be safe, and it will make it harder to convince countries like China that they have no need to build up sophisticated war-fighting capacities of their own. From a long-term perspective, this strategy seems rather short-sighted, indeed a real and present danger to global peace and security.

To be clear: This line of thinking by the US president is exceedingly dangerous to everyone. It not only ignores disquieting facts about nuclear weapons and threatens to further implode a global effort to reduce nuclear armaments, it also increases the risk of a new nuclear arms race and a nuclear catastrophe. Trump's push for nuclear proliferation is the worst possible option, not even worthy of being a last resort.

The final argument is that the more US nuclear weapons exist and are upgraded, the more likely they are to be used - either intentionally or accidentally - and expose human race to the risk of an unprecedented nuclear calamity and possibly a horrifying extinction.

The solution is not easy but straightforward: The US and other nuclear weapon states should not expand their nuclear arsenals at all. Instead, they should continue to reduce their weapons stockpiles, ideally until they are all gone. Most importantly, however, it's past time that the Trump White House stops assuming nuclear weapons are safe. The reality of nuclear weapons, including their numbers, risks, cost, and imminent threat to the future of humanity speak for themselves.

President Trump is way off the line to present America’s nuclear weapons and his decision to expand them as promoting security, particularly during times of international instability and chaos. America’s weapons of mass destruction that risk catastrophic and irreversible humanitarian consequences cannot seriously be viewed as protecting its civilians, let alone humanity as a whole.

Source: Fars News Agancy

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