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US, Russia Reach Nuclear Arsenal Agreement
Peace Corps Library writes "The United States and Russia, seeking to move forward on one of the most significant arms control treaties since the end of the cold war, announced that they had reached a preliminary agreement on cutting each country's stockpiles of strategic nuclear weapons, effectively setting the stage for a successor to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start), a cold war-era pact that expires in December. Under the framework, negotiators are to be instructed to craft a treaty that would cut strategic warheads for each side to between 1,500 and 1,675, down from the limit of 2,200 slated to take effect in 2012 under the Treaty of Moscow (PDF) signed by President George W. Bush. The limit on delivery vehicles would be cut to between 500 and 1,100 from the 1,600 currently allowed under Start. Perhaps more important than the specific limits would be a revised and extended verification system that otherwise would expire with Start in December. The United States currently has 1,198 land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-based missiles and bombers, which together are capable of delivering 5,576 warheads, according to its most recent Start report in January, while Russia reported that it has 816 delivery vehicles capable of delivering 3,909 warheads. 'We have a mutual interest in protecting both of our populations from the kinds of danger that weapons proliferation is presenting today,' said President Obama."
Just destroy your selves so we can go back to our huts and tipis, thanks.
If you're interested in facts I'll tell you what they are and I'll give you sources - Chomsky on The Big Idea
BBC radio is reporting this will bring the USA and Russia down to owning a mere 95% of the world's nuclear weapons. Go USA! Go Russia!
Seriously, good work both countries for making a step in the right direction. But keep going, you've got a long way to go before you can start preaching to countries with a dozen or nuclear weapons about the need for restraint.
That's ok, the entire article is off topic for /. unless someone wants to argue that nuclear war would put an end to all modern technology and other nerdly pursuits so news about nuclear disarmament is nerd news. Meh
mmmm...forbidden donut
I think not! These weapons are with us for good.
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
But John R. Bolton, who was ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, said Mr. Obama was going too far. "The number they are proposing for delivery vehicles is shockingly low," he said.
Really? They're aiming for 500 launch vehicles. Are there even that many targets to nuke or does Bolton just want us to do it a few times over for the refried beans effect? Also, this is 500 launch vehicles and 1,500 warheads so I assume there are some MIRVs in there. I was under the impression that the whole defense aspect of nukes was to make retaliation too expensive for the other side to shoot first. If that's the case, 500 launch vehicles and 1,500 warheads would be enough to make anyone regret it. France, China, and the UK seem to be pretty secure with even less.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
700 nukes.
It distracted attention away from Honduras, the fact that what happened there was not a coup but actually the application of the rule of law (the removal by force of a wannabe dictator who illegally refused to leave office when his legal term limit had been reached), and the fact that the US president publically supported this wannabe dictator who tried, unsuccessfully and quite obviously, to illegally stay in power (that is, what he did was clearly against the laws/constitution of Honduras). A US president speaking out against the rule of law. Now you'd think that would really be newsworthy and certainly more interesting. Instead we get endless coverage about Michael Jackson and this difference between 1500 and 2200 nukes.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
I've really got to love our society. A more than slightly crazy musician and probable child molester dies and it's all the news can talk about for three weeks as people cry in the streets and memorial concerts are held all over the country. A man who was partially responsible for guiding the world through the cold war without destroying modern civilization dies and no one even knows who he is.
In case you did not know, the massive nuclear buildup by the US in the 1950's and 1960's was largely based on incomplete intelligence and a great deal of incompetence by the Eisenhower and (much less so) the Kennedy administrations. Although McNamara recognized that the US had a large advantage in both nuclear warheads and delivery systems, he still continued the massive buildup in nuclear weapons started by Eisenhower and pushed the idea of mutually assured destruction. It led to the greatest period of nuclear tension we ever had, and almost led us to nuclear war.
In the 1950's the US thought the Soviets were greatly increasing their nuclear arsenal in order to gain first strike capabilities. This was false and not supported by strong intelligence, and many in the Eisenhower administration did not take proper precautions to ensure this was correct. The US initiated a period of nuclear proliferation that was understandably viewed by the Soviets as an attempt to gain first strike capability, and they quickly followed suit with their own nuclear buildup.
Mr. McNamara did not abandon the idea of massive retaliation, he actually advanced it. He said himself said (paraphrasing) that it was pure luck that we did not end up in a nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis. He also continued the ludicrous notion of the domino theory which led to the escalation of the Vietnam War under his command.
Also, (taken from the NY Times book review of his autobiography) he realized relatively early in the Vietnam war that it could not be won by military force, but did not fight for his opinion and didn't take a public stance on that position until the 1990's. He and the Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon administrations destroyed the common trust and confidence in our government, which still has far-reaching consequences today. He oversaw one of the largest expansions of the US military in history, which can be directly traced to our ridiculous defense policy and budget today.
Mr. McNamara was a brilliant man, but he is a symbol of how arrogance and loyalty to authority dragged our country to the brink of destruction. Combined with his (and the rest of the government's) mismanagement of the Vietnam War, Mr. McNamara is certainly not a politician that will be missed by me.
China is also reducing its arsenal
Citation needed. China has not been very open or forthcoming at all with regards to their weapons programs, nuclear or conventional. In fact they are currently in the process of building new ballistic missile submarines and deploying road mobile ICBMs. How is this compatible with "reducing" their arsenal?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
A more than slightly crazy musician and probable child molester dies and it's all the news can talk about for three weeks as people cry in the streets and memorial concerts are held all over the country. A man who was partially responsible for guiding the world through the cold war without destroying modern civilization dies and no one even knows who he is.
You forgot the part where the crazy probable child molester pushed the coverage of the struggle in Iran off the front pages.......
Fourth estate indeed.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
You don't think that one of the most technically advanced and mind-blowing weapons every created is geeky?
Now this article might not be geek-a-riffic, but the fact remains that nuclear warheads, the science behind them, and all of the crazy software/hardware that goes into them is extremely geeky.
A citation is being modded flamebait, but the guy screaming fuckwad isn't? Pathetic.
Okay.
1. I am not and have never really been a fan of MJ but that fact that you must thrust him even into this shows you are part of the problem of which you speak. He is dead and I feel sorry for his family.
2. McNamara sucked. No really he was a walking talking disaster area. The complete re writing of history around JFK drives me nuts. McNamara and JFK over saw the largest increase in the nuclear stock pile in history. He made no agreements involving arms control except the Nuclear Test Band Treaty which was a good thing I will give you.
Eisenhower tried to talk the the USSR about weapons but the U2 over flight really killed it. Eisenhower was really trying to limit the growth in arms and for some reason people forget that Kennedy ran on "The Missile Gap" to show that the republicans where weak on defense.
Then we have the Bay of Pigs disaster.
And the Cuban Missile Crisis
Then we have Vietnam.
McNamara's strange ideas in weapons development. He thought that since Ford could make several different models from one car the military could make a Navy fighter and an Air Force bomber out of the same plane. That actually produced a good bomber for the Air Force even if it was more expensive and complex than it needed to be. The fighter got canned after a lot of money was poured into it.
Over all I agree with the idea that in general is a stupid waste of effort. Every thing else is just as silly.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Same exact thing could be said about US. just US organized crime is much more refined as they had time to cultivate from robber barons to CEOs. Russia "ruling elite" had to grind they teeth in mob wars just recently -in 1990s
The wacky logic is this:
By building out missile defense, we make our enemies' aresenal less effective, the logical conclusion of which is the day when it becomes ineffective.
It therefore follows that, being frightened that on that day we will, having nothing to lose, engage in a first strike, they will have to use their materiel while it still is effective.
Therefore, missile defense systems are a threatening move that invites pre-retaliation and makes us less safe rather than more.
The logic itself isn't wacky. It's the assumption that it is based on. That communication simply doesn't exist, is unreliable, or that the communicators cannot be trusted anyway. Because that assumption leads to the necessity of nuclear war whether you build out defenses or not.
The only real solution is for both or all parties to become invested in each other's success. But then it doesn't matter how many big bada boom boxes anyone has, and the number will dwindle on its own out of economic expedience anyway.
Is there a white equivalent of the NAACP?
No, why would there be? Was there a white equivalent of slavery in the US?
Our histories are parallel and intertwined, but not equal. Without injustice, the NAACP would not be necessary. The NAACP was started in the early 1900s, when blacks often couldn't vote or stay in the same hotel or use the same drinking fountain. The NAACP is a demonstration of exactly what I'm talking about - we still haven't healed.
Face it - in the US it is still a tremendous advantage to be a white man.
At a certain point, the effects of ancient history have dwindled to nothing. I'd say that point is already past.
The numbers disagree with you. Blacks are still disadvantaged. If you, as a white guy, don't see racism on a day-to-day basis then I'd say you aren't paying much attention, or you are very lucky and live in a place which I would love to move to.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Actually, most of the slavery was carried out by the Africans. In fact, Africa is the only continent that still has legal slavery to this day. And the so called Anglo Saxons consisted or Portuguese ans Spanish who purchased the slaves from African tribes and sold them to settlements under the British crown.
As for reparations, they have already been paid in both the loss of life in gaining the freedoms of the slaves and in the welfare and housing benefits given to minorities and the special treatment they got starting with the civil rights legislation of 1964. Every descendant of a slave has had the opportunity to be more then anything that the slavery took away. Even if you attach the Jim crow laws that were around as late as the early 1960, this means that almost every distressed minority is at least 1 generation out if not 2 or more. There is no need for a cash payment or anything because the people who were harmed and their families directly effected are no longer alive.
This really doesn't prove anything. China is upgrading everything, their weapons tech is still behind that of Russia, let alone NATO. They still don't have a locally produced 4th generation fighter when Europe and the US have their 5th gen fighters flying and Russia's is nearing completion.
Neither are NATO or Russia. You don't publicise military secrets, this is not an indication of bad intents or dreams of conquest.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.