Obama's Showdown Over Nuclear Weapons

A Trident II missile, usually armed with a nuclear warhead, is launched
from an Ohio class submarine. Getty Pictures

From Time Magazine:

The latest U.S. nuclear showdown doesn't involve a foreign enemy. Instead it pits President Barack Obama against his Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, and concerns the question of whether America needs a new generation of nuclear warheads. While serving under former President George W. Bush, Gates had repeatedly called for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program to be put into operation, because the nation's current nukes — mostly produced in the 1970s and '80s — are growing so old that their destructive power may be in question.

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My Comment: In he past decade, both China and Russia made the commitment to modernize their nuclear forces over everything else. This involved enormous expenditure of monies and resources. The U.S. is clearly following a different strategy and approach.

I doubt very much that both China and Russia are going to be interested in scaling down their nuclear forces after spending billions to modernize them. They will see U.S. insistence for nuclear reductions as a ploy to not spend the money.

Def. Sec. Gates is right on his analysis of the prevailing situation. President Obama and his Congressional allies are looking at this politically .... not strategically from a foreign affairs perspective.