"Let it be an arms race": Donald Trump Tweet Raises Prospect of New Global Arms Race
As reported by Democracy Now! in its morning headlines:
President-elect Donald Trump raised the prospect of a new global arms race on Thursday, after he suggested on Twitter he would increase the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Trump’s tweet read, "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes." At the State Department, the outgoing Obama administration spokesperson John Kirby was asked about the tweet.
John Kirby: "I can’t speak for the president-elect’s nuclear views or his policy going forward. That’s for him and his team to speak to. What I can speak to is the approach that this administration has taken to try to get us on on a path to a world without nuclear weapons."
Despite President Obama’s call for an end to nuclear weapons, his administration has been quietly upgrading its nuclear arsenal to create smaller, more precise nuclear bombs as part of a massive effort that will cost up to $1 trillion over three decades. Speaking to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday, Trump’s former campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, defended the president-elect’s tweet, pointing to President Obama’s nuclear plans.
Kellyanne Conway: "I don’t think the tweet was groundbreaking in this regard. It seems that President Obama himself has invested––has called for an upgrade in our capabilities. I’ve read in one or two articles, up to $1 trillion is the price tag. So, we all—you know, President Obama, President-elect Trump—everyone shares the same, I think, core value, and their first duty is to try to keep us all safe. And we know it’s a dangerous world, and that includes nuclear weapons."
That was Trump’s former campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, who Trump named yesterday as counselor to the president. This morning, MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski said she spoke briefly to the president-elect on the phone and asked him about his nuclear weapons comments. Brzezinski recounted Trump’s response during a conversation with co-host Joe Scarborough.
Joe Scarborough: "Mika asked the president-elect, while we had the opportunity, what his position was on—trying to clarify the tweet yesterday regarding the nuclear arsenal. And the president-elect told you what?"
Mika Brzezinski: "Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass."
Joe Scarborough: "And outlast them all."
Mika Brzezinski: "And outlast them all."
According to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, about 93 percent of all nuclear warheads are owned by Russia and the United States, which together have about 14,000 warheads stockpiled.
(In the longer segment linked below, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! pointed out "And, yes, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were sitting in their pajamas in front of a fire as they spoke." CommonDreams coverage added "...and slippers," complete with a photo.)
Democracy Now's Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales then interviewed Greenpeace USA's executive director, Annie Leonard, about Trump's Dr. Strangelovian Tweet and flippan "Let it be an arms race" line, in a segment entitled "Absolutely Frightening: Greenpeace Responds to Trump's Call for a New Nuclear Arms Race."
Greenpeace was founded initially to protest a U.S. nuclear weapons test blast in Amchitka, Alaska, that they feared would generate a deadly tsunami wave. Greenpeace's original name was the "Don't Make a Wave Committee."
Update on December 23, 2016 by
admin
Here below are some of the Ploughshares Fund's responses (edited by Nataliya Gaydey and Katherine McMullen) to Trump and Putin's rhetoric about a new nuclear arms race made yesterday:
TAKE NUCLEAR MISSILES OFF HAIR-TRIGGER ALERT
Developing story: Donald Trump (Tweet) and Vladimir Putin (Statement) both called for strengthening and expanding their already formidable nuclear arsenals today. Watch Joe Cirincione’s take here.
Mr. President, take nuclear missiles off hair-trigger - “It is not too late to stop [President-elect Donald Trump] from impulsively blowing up the planet. With the stroke of a pen, President Barack Obama could take our nuclear missiles off high alert, making sure that President Trump could not launch them rashly. If he doesn’t do this, we will all regret it,” writes Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund for The Huffington Post. “President Obama should take our nuclear missiles off hair-trigger alert before Donald Trump gets control of them.”
--“If the president can do this for parts of the environment, he can take this one simple step to safeguard the entire planet. Scores of leading nuclear scientists wrote to the President asking him to take nuclear missiles off hair-trigger alert… President Trump could still launch nuclear weapons in an emergency, but it would take hours or days. This gives time for consultations, consideration, time to check mistakes and blunt the impulses of the moment. More time doesn’t weaken our national security; it strengthens it.” Read the full story here. http://huff.to/2hatFGC
Sign a petition to reduce risks of nuclear disaster - “On January 20, the military officer carrying the codes for America's nuclear arsenal will follow President Barack Obama to the inaugural platform. When he leaves, the officer will follow President Donald Trump… President Trump will be able to launch, within minutes, one or one thousand nuclear warheads without any vote, any check, or even any serious deliberation. Just one missile could kill millions. Once launched, the missiles could not be recalled.” Sign the Ploughshares Fund petition to urge President Barack Obama to take our nuclear missiles off hair-trigger alert and reduce the risk of nuclear catastrophe. http://bit.ly/2hUglVF
Beyond hair-trigger - “It’s not too late [for President Barack Obama] to make a little more progress [on nuclear weapons],” writes Lisbeth Gronlund for Union of Concerned Scientists. “Obama could reduce the hedge stockpile of weapons the US keeps in storage, and the amount of highly-enriched uranium and plutonium that the US keeps in case it wants to build even more weapons. It’s surprising that he hasn’t already taken these incremental steps. But their incremental nature also means that the Trump administration is unlikely to object… By cutting the hedge and declaring more fissile material excess, Obama would go a little further in fulfilling the promise he made in 2009.” Read full story here. http://bit.ly/2hYXBqv