Proponents of nuclear weapons tend to downplay the number of nuclear weapons the United States possesses to forward their ‘we don’t have nukes to spare’ agenda. While it is true that according to the parameters of the New START treaty the US has 1,642 deployed nuclear warheads, this figure does not take into consideration the thousands of other nuclear weapons in our stockpile or awaiting dismantlement.
The US would ‘count’ a weapon awaiting dismantlement in North Korea or Iran as a bomb that could kill large numbers of people — even if they don’t ‘count’ under the terms of the New START treaty.
It’s important to remember that a nuclear weapon is a nuclear weapon no matter where it’s being stored.
