March 17, 2014

NYT EDITORIAL: REDUCE STOCKPILE TO 1,000 WARHEADS

By ExchangeMonitor

The Obama Administration should move quickly to further reduce the size of the nation’s nuclear stockpile, the New York Times said in an editorial yesterday that suggested that a smaller stockpile could lessen the need to ramp up spending to modernize the nation’s arsenal and weapons complex. Such thinking runs counter to central bargain between the Administration and Senate Republicans on the New START Treaty—that the need to ensure that the nation’s stockpile is safe, secure and effective is enhanced at lower stockpile numbers—but the Times called for a continuation of modernization cuts that began last month with a decision to defer construction of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility and scale back other modernization efforts. “Reducing the arsenal will make it easier to rein in that bloated budget and shift resources to more critical needs,” the Times said, adding: “More and deeper cuts are needed.”

The Times suggested that the Administration should “lead the way” and reduce the nation’s stockpile to 1,000 strategic deployed warheads and get rid of all of its tactical nuclear weapons, moving quickly on new negotiations with Russia on a follow-on to the New START Treaty. “Just how many [warheads] does the United States need?” the Times said. “Many experts believe the United States can easily go down to 1,000 warheads in total—deployed and stored—without jeopardizing security. We agree.” The paper said the ongoing Nuclear Posture Review Implementation Study is President Obama’s “opportunity to reshape the post-cold-war world to make it fundamentally safer. He needs to seize it.” The full editorial is available here.

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