{"id":15038,"date":"2015-12-07T07:03:55","date_gmt":"2015-12-07T12:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=15038"},"modified":"2015-12-07T07:04:24","modified_gmt":"2015-12-07T12:04:24","slug":"former-defense-secretary-warns-us-is-pushing-towards-nuclear-apocalypse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=15038","title":{"rendered":"Former Defense Secretary Warns US is Pushing Towards Nuclear Apocalypse"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Former\u00a0Defense\u00a0Secretary\u00a0Warns\u00a0US\u00a0is Pushing\u00a0Towards\u00a0Nuclear\u00a0Apocalypse<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n
The United States is on the brink of a new nuclear arms race that will elevate the risk of nuclear apocalypse to Cold War levels, former Secretary of Defense William Perry warned on Thursday.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Perry, who from\u00a01994 to\u00a01997 served as\u00a0Pentagon chief under\u00a0President Bill Clinton, delivered his remarks at\u00a0an event hosted by\u00a0the Defense Writers Group<\/p>\n

\n

“We’re now at\u00a0the precipice, maybe I should say the brink, of\u00a0a new nuclear arms race,” he said. “This arms race will be at\u00a0least as\u00a0expensive as\u00a0the arms race we had during\u00a0the Cold War, which is a lot of\u00a0money.”<\/p>\n

The Pentagon is starting a major overhaul of\u00a0its nuclear triad, made up\u00a0of bomber, submarine and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) nuclear options. Perry called for\u00a0the breaking of\u00a0the triad by\u00a0dismantling the ICBM stockpile.<\/p>\n

ICBMs, he said, “aren’t necessary \u2026 they’re not needed. Any reasonable definition of\u00a0deterrence will not require that third leg.”<\/p>\n

\n
\"The<\/div>\n
\u00a9 FLICKR\/ U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE<\/a><\/div>\n
US’ New Nuke-Armed Missiles ‘Inherently Destabilizing’<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In an August assessment, the Center for\u00a0Strategic and Budgetary Assessments projects that it will cost more than $700 billion over\u00a0the next 25 years to\u00a0recapitalize the nuclear triad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Perry said spending that money is foolish considering the United States is both short of\u00a0cash for\u00a0other programs and capable of\u00a0a robust nuclear deterrence already, Defense News reported.<\/p>\n

The risk of\u00a0nuclear war is exacerbated by\u00a0the deterioration of\u00a0the relationship between\u00a0Moscow and Washington that had been formed after\u00a0the fall of\u00a0the Soviet Union. Without clear military-to-military communication between\u00a0those two nations, the risk of\u00a0an accidental conflict increases, Perry said.<\/p>\n

“Today \u2013 probably I would not have said this 10 years ago \u2013 but\u00a0today we now face the kind of\u00a0dangers of\u00a0a nuclear event like\u00a0we had during\u00a0the Cold War, an accidental war,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I see an imperative: to\u00a0stop this damn nuclear arms race from\u00a0accelerating again.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former\u00a0Defense\u00a0Secretary\u00a0Warns\u00a0US\u00a0is Pushing\u00a0Towards\u00a0Nuclear\u00a0Apocalypse The United States is on the brink of a new nuclear arms race that will elevate the risk of nuclear apocalypse to Cold War levels, former Secretary of Defense William Perry warned on Thursday. Perry, who from\u00a01994 to\u00a01997 served as\u00a0Pentagon chief under\u00a0President Bill Clinton, delivered his remarks at\u00a0an event hosted by\u00a0the Defense Writers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[149,10929,581,620,5992,827,862,10928],"class_list":["post-15038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-cold-war","tag-nuclear-arms-race","tag-nuclear-war","tag-pentagon","tag-sputnik-news","tag-united-states","tag-war","tag-william-perry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15038"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15040,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15038\/revisions\/15040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}