A draft of the Trump administration's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), obtained by HuffPost, reveals a push for lower-yield nuclear warheads, the creation of submarine-launched atomic weapons, and a policy shift in nuclear weapons.
The document, set to be released in February, defends the low-yield weapon initiative to retaliate against the conception among potential adversaries that the U.S. nuclear arsenal is too lethal to ever be used.
HuffPost reports:
Trump’s NPR draft euphemizes the euphemism, referring to low-yield weapons as “supplements” that will “enhance deterrence.” The document claims that Russia is threatening to use these smaller nuclear weapons; the U.S. needs to match and deter the Russians in kind.
What goes unmentioned is that we already have over 1,000 nuclear warheads in our arsenal with low-yield options, to say nothing of the fact that the more nuclear weapons you introduce into the world, the more likely it is that they’ll one day be used.
The HuffPost piece talks with Alexandra Bell, a former senior adviser at the State Department and current senior policy director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, who points out that the existing active stockpile is "more than enough to destroy the world many times over. So I don’t think it makes a convincing case that we somehow lack capabilities. And, in fact, I don’t think you can make the case that this president needs any more capabilities.”
Read the full draft of the NPR here.
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