{"id":35313,"date":"2018-06-21T05:59:09","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T10:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=35313"},"modified":"2018-06-21T05:59:09","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T10:59:09","slug":"getting-ready-for-nuclear-war-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=35313","title":{"rendered":"Getting Ready for Nuclear War"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting Ready for Nuclear War<\/a><\/h3>\n
\n

Although many people have criticized the bizarre nature of Donald Trump\u2019s diplomacy with North Korea, his recent lovefest with Kim Jong Un does have the potential to reduce the dangers posed by nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula.<\/p>\n

Even so, buried far below the mass media coverage of the summit spectacle, the reality is that Trump\u2015assisted by his military and civilian advisors\u2015is busy getting the United States ready for nuclear war.<\/p>\n

This deeper and more ominous situation is reflected in the extensive nuclear \u201cmodernization\u201d program currently underway in the United States. Begun during the Obama administration, the nuclear weapons buildup was initially offered as an inducement to Senate Republicans to vote for the president\u2019s New START Treaty. It provided for a $1 trillion refurbishment of the entire U.S. nuclear weapons complex\u2015as well as for new weapons for nuclear warfare on land, in the sea, and in the air\u2015over the following three decades.<\/p>\n

Characteristically, this program, though unnecessary and outlandishly expensive, was not nearly grand enough for Trump, who, during his election campaign, repeatedly assailed what he claimed was the pitiful state of America\u2019s nuclear preparedness. In fact, in his first campaign announcement, he went so far as to proclaim: \u201cOur nuclear arsenal doesn\u2019t work.\u201d In December 2016, shortly after his election victory, he tweeted: \u201cThe United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability.\u201d The next day, speaking with his usual brashness, he told Mika Brzezinski, the host of an MSNBC program: \u201cLet it be an arms race.\u201d He added: \u201cWe will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump unveiled his official \u201cAmerica First\u201d National Security Strategy in December 2017. Criticizing the downgraded role of nuclear weapons in U.S. national security policy since the end of the Cold War, it broadened the role of nuclear weapons in future policy.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting Ready for Nuclear War Although many people have criticized the bizarre nature of Donald Trump\u2019s diplomacy with North Korea, his recent lovefest with Kim Jong Un does have the potential to reduce the dangers posed by nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula. Even so, buried far below the mass media coverage of the summit […]<\/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":[2374,5493,19243,2006,581,2583,827,862],"class_list":["post-35313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-arms-race","tag-counterpunch","tag-lawrence-wittner","tag-north-korea","tag-nuclear-war","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-united-states","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35313","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=35313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35314,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35313\/revisions\/35314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}