Let’s turn to “New Start” and global zero. Without regard to China’s modernizing strategic arsenal, Obama signed an agreement with Russia to reduce the number of deployed U.S. nuclear warheads from 2,200 to between 1,500 and 1,675.
American Enterprise Institute Resident Fellow Daniel Blumenthal, November 29, 2011. Back on planet Earth, the New START agreement in reality limits the U.S. and Russia to no more than 1,550 deployed (New START accountable) warheads. The 1,500 to 1,675 warhead range referred to by Blumenthal reflected the status of the New START negotiations as of the Joint Understanding for the START Follow-on Treaty. When was that Joint Understanding released, you ask? Try July 6, 2009.
It’s also noteworthy that in a piece designed to convince his readers that the New START treaty is tempting China to expand its nuclear arsenal, Blumenthal can’t actually bring himself to state how many nuclear weapons China actually has. This is understandable, since the best estimates suggest that China possesses approximately 250 nuclear warheads. Instead Blumenthal links to a story highlighting the research conducted by Georgetown Professor Phil Karber and his students suggesting that China has thousands of nuclear weapons. What Blumenthal again fails to mention is that Karber’s estimate is highly suspect – at best.
