White House wants $80 billion for nuclear weapons arsenal

The Obama White House has requested at least $80 billion dollars to "upgrade and modernize" its nuclear weapons arsenal in an apparent move to sweeten the START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) deal for Senate Republicans. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) hailed the request, saying, "it demonstrates the Obama's administration's commitment to keeping America's nuclear deterrent safe and effective for a generation to come." We think it has a lot more to do with throwing another meaty bone to the Republicans to garner votes and that using words like "deterrent," "safe," and "effective" in the same context as nuclear weapons does not send a disarmament message. If we argue the myth of "deterrence" how can we then say we should have zero nuclear weapons?