Thursday, August 4, 2016

President Obama Wants To Change America's Nuclear First Strike Policy

Photo: Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson

Josh Rogin, Washington Post: Obama plans major nuclear policy changes in his final months

The Obama administration is determined to use its final six months in office to take a series of executive actions to advance the nuclear agenda the president has advocated since his college days. It’s part of Obama’s late push to polish a foreign policy legacy that is plagued by challenges on several other fronts.

President Obama announced his drive to reduce the role of nuclear weapons and eventually rid the world of them in his first major foreign policy speech, in Prague in 2009. In his first years, he achieved some successes, such as the New START treaty with Russia, the Nuclear Security Summits and the controversial Iran deal. But progress waned in the past year as more pressing crises commanded the White House’s attention. Now, the president is considering using the freedom afforded a departing administration to cross off several remaining items on his nuclear wish list.

In recent weeks, the national security Cabinet members known as the Principals Committee held two meetings to review options for executive actions on nuclear policy. Many of the options on the table are controversial, but by design none of them require formal congressional approval. No final decisions have been made, but Obama is expected to weigh in personally soon.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: No one is happy with this policy direction ....

White House Mulls Big Nuclear Policy Changes, and Lawmakers Speak Up -- Defense News
US Air Force Secretary Skeptical of No-First-Use Nuclear Policy -- Defense News
‘No first use’ nuclear weapons policy a dangerous Obama idea -- Michaela Dodge, Washington Times
America Must Be Ready to Nuke First -- Guy B. Roberts, National Interest

13 comments:

jimbrown said...

This is a dangerous development.

jimbrown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jay Farquharson said...

>>I wanted to take a moment to highlight that during the Cuban Missile Crisis, while under bombardment by depth charges, the captain of the Soviet Submarine B-59, exhausted and not understanding that the US was trying to get him to surface, not sink him, ordered one of his nuclear armed torpedoes be made ready to fire on the USS Randolph. Captain Savitsky was, fortunately, overruled by the Soviet Submarine Fleet Commander, Captain Vasili Arkhipov, refused to assent to firing the torpedo. Had he not done so the nuclear attack on the USS Randolph, which was leading the US Naval force, would have likely triggered the Single Integrated Operational Plan; America’s strategic plan for responding to a nuclear attack. Had this happened World War III would have begun and lasted only until the nuclear weapons stopped detonating…<<

https://www.balloon-juice.com/2016/08/03/you-may-not-be-interested-in-nuclear-war-but-nuclear-war-may-be-interested-in-you/

Just a carpenter. said...

Where's Captain Vasili Arkhipovs Peace Prize?

Just a carpenter. said...

Where's Captain Vasili Arkhipovs Peace Prize?

Unknown said...

Obama has less than 6 months to go and he is trying to break everything in sight.

ISIS controls more land and people than it did 2 years ago. Obama is a fool and to blame.

War News Updates Editor said...

in case anyone wants to know who is Vasili Arkhipov .... https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/27/vasili-arkhipov-stopped-nuclear-war

RRH said...

Obama the "leftist" is wrong even when he follows the playbook of the right. Grorgie Bush and Co. set the table for ISIS. All his O'ness did was serve the meal. He was the best option to follow the (re) engineers of the ME, being a community organizer and all.

Jay Farquharson said...

Removing first use, makes the world just a tiny bit safer.

RRH said...

Here's his chance to do one thing right before he goes. Someone should emphasize how "right" it is to encourage him further. I mean, they should use the word "right" a lot when explaining it. Eventually he'll come to believe it's "righter" than anything Dubya did and follow through.

Jay Farquharson said...

If Obama does it, it won't be permanent. US Nuclear Policy, and the "football" is up to the President. They can launch a nuclear war, any where, any time, for any reason, and the only "veto", is an SAC Coup or Mutiny.

Sadly, "most American's" believe, ( including the Pentagon) that a Nuclear War can be "won",

Either from an OpFor's "unconditional surrender" after an initial strike,

Or that the US "throw weight" in a First Strike, ( 630 warheads between 20mt and 50mt, 22,050mt in total) will cause the Russian/Chinese counter strike to weigh in at only 1,520mt, and the US's response of 6,540mt will wipe them out for once and for all.

Of course, they ignore the fact that 150mt kills the whole world eventually, and trading 140 million Russians and 1.3 billion Chinese, for only 30 million US survivors, most of whom will be long dead before there is another spring, ain't winning.

Jay Farquharson said...

https://warisboring.com/when-u-s-africa-command-evaluates-itself-the-results-are-grim-1c9f234ff8d4#.gtxizd1xy

Coincidence, or causal?

RRH said...

Problem is, expecting people who are stupid or ignorant about most things regarding war to be smart about it's nuclear variant is asking a lot.