It’s Time to Reign in Nuclear Spending
September 25, 2014
By Angela Canterbury and Kingston Reif
The current international landscape seems to be defined by a never-ending cycle of conflicts and crises. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. ISIL’s rampage in Iraq and Syria. The disintegration of Libya. The spread of Ebola.
President Barack Obama has numerous tools at his disposal to attempt to keep America and its allies safe from legitimate threats. But the most explosive (literally) power tool has neither prevented nor will be useful in addressing any of today’s international security issues: nuclear weapons.
The current U.S. arsenal of approximately 4,800 nuclear warheads is a Cold War anachronism. Nonetheless, as The New York Times outlined in a Sept. 22 front page story, the United States is planning to rebuild all three legs of its existing nuclear “triad” and their associated warheads – at a cost that could reach $1 trillion over the next 30 years.
As the bill for nuclear weapons grows larger and larger in the coming years, Congress must scrutinize the commitment to keep last century’s nuclear arsenal.
Read the full article here.
