Wednesday, June 20, 2012
A Cut Too Far
Anonymously contributed:
A Cut Too Far
== Obama set to seek deeper cuts in nuclear arsenal ==
Washington Free Beacon, June 19th
President Obama has decided to seek deeper cuts in deployed strategic nuclear weapons to as few as 1,000 warheads, sharply below the target of 1,550 warheads required under a 2010 U.S.-Russia arms treaty, U.S. officials said Monday.
Critics say the steep cuts, which the administration will seek in new talks with a growing anti-U.S. government in Moscow, would undermine U.S. strategic deterrence for the United States and its allies in Asia and Europe.
The lower warhead levels also would be contrary to recent congressional testimony from a strategic forces commander who said further cuts would weaken the ability to deter nuclear states like Russia and China.
...The deeper nuclear cuts are outlined in a forthcoming report the Pentagon calls the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) implementation study, dubbed the mini-NPR, and reflect President Obama’s announced 2009 effort to completely eliminate all nuclear weapons. The announcement comes despite reports that Russia and China are engaged in a major buildup of their nuclear forces, and North Korea and Iran are developing nuclear arsenals.
http://freebeacon.com/a-cut-too-far/
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13 comments:
There's room for debate. General Cartwright, former head of STRATCOM, is supportive of considering such cuts.
Recent NY Times article
Director Charlie McMillan at LANL issued a memo today. After laying off nearly 600 regular staff during the VSP (voluntary) followed by 80 contractors, Charlie has decided to go forward with plans to lay off an additional 115 skilled contractors ASAP.
No word yet on whether that will be followed by another VSP or perhaps even an involuntary layoff of more regular staff. Charlie says he'll get back with employees on that one at a later date.
It's getting pretty bleak up on the Hill. You can't even find a UHaul to rent what with all the recently fired lab contractors leaving town.
Charlie will "speak" to the staff to address his concerns on Wednesday afternoon. I expect the usual high frequency of uhhhhhs and ummmms..., particularly during the question and answer session.
This is a good one. Earlier this year it was leaked that the number could go as low as 300 and now it is leaked that it may be 1000. So the REAL story here is an increase of three-fold! There can be honest differences between policy types on the preferred size and composition of the strategic deterrent, but a three-fold difference in numbers of warheads does not equate to a three-fold difference in budgets.
This is a good one. Earlier this year it was leaked that the number could go as low as 300 and now it is leaked that it may be 1000. So the REAL story here is an increase of three-fold!
June 21, 2012 5:55 AM
Are you talking about the number of UUhhhs and UUhmms that Charlie will say during his all-hands?
10:16 is flat-out false. 557 people took the voluntary separation and were not "layed off." 55 contract positions were subsequently eliminated, and the memo says 80 more now will be eliminated.
10:16 either cannot read, or intentionally exaggerates, or both. Shocking for this blog, I know.
Call it bleak if you want, but at least get the numbers right.
Let's just get to the Barney Fife nuclear weapons posture. There will be 1 nuclear warhead. The different services will need to pass that one warhead amongst them. They get the key to the warhead from Obama, when he is finished campaigning, vacationing and blaming Bush.
Good. It's about time! The US nuclear arsenal is too expensive. Why do we need enough nukes to destroy this planet 10 times over???
You're living in the 1970s, 6:01 pm.
The US no longer has the nuclear arsenal to destroy the world "10 times over".
Maybe enough to destroy one-quarter of the world once, but that's about it. You can sleep well now.
By the way, Jas Mercer-Smith asked McMillan what would happen to LANL when LLNL doesn't meet the NIF Ignition goal next month. McMillan said that "LLNL doesn't have a chance in hell of surviving this". Too bad Parney wasn't in the audience to see and hear McMillan kiss X-Division asses with his response. It's what LANL X-Division wanted the hear, i.e., "LLNL is going down in smoke next month".
I have great faith in LLNL managers to wriggle out of technical failure yet once again; it's a time honored tradition. I also expect that LLNL will insist that a slightly bigger laser will do the job just fine, and that they have a barrel full of computer simulations to prove it (and by the way, a bigger, faster computer would also help). So, taxpayers, look forward to a $B upgrade in your future, NIFU!
For the PhDs that may be involuntary entrants to the job market soon, take a look at the Washington Post article from today (July 8). Unemployment for PhDs is at all time record high levels. Never easy to be told that you have to find another job, but extra hard to swallow when the economy is in the ditch, and there is a glut of PhDs already on the market.
Ahhhhh, can't you just feel the love coming our way?
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(Reuters - July 9th) - President Vladimir Putin said on Monday the West's influence was waning as its economy declines but warned Russian diplomats to be on their guard against a backlash from Moscow's former Cold War enemies.
...Putin's speech was sprinkled with the hawkish rhetoric that has made many foreign policy experts predict a turn for the worse in relations with the United States following his return to the Kremlin in May.
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