{"id":70936,"date":"2016-03-21T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T12:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=70936"},"modified":"2016-03-21T06:02:47","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T06:02:47","slug":"the-trillion-dollar-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/03\/the-trillion-dollar-question\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trillion-Dollar Question"},"content":{"rendered":"

15 Mar 2016 – <\/em>Isn\u2019t it rather odd that America\u2019s largest single public expenditure scheduled for the coming decades has received no attention in the 2015-2016 presidential debates?<\/p>\n

The expenditure is for a 30-year program to \u201cmodernize\u201d the U.S. nuclear arsenal and production facilities.\u00a0 Although President Obama began his administration with a dramatic public commitment to build a nuclear weapons-free world, that commitment has long ago dwindled and died.\u00a0 It has been replaced by an administration plan to build a new generation of U.S. nuclear weapons and nuclear production facilities to last the nation well into the second half of the twenty-first century.\u00a0 This plan, which has received almost no attention by the mass media, includes redesigned nuclear warheads, as well as new nuclear bombers, submarines, land-based missiles, weapons labs, and production plants.\u00a0 The estimated cost?\u00a0 $1,000,000,000,000.00\u2014or, for those readers unfamiliar with such lofty figures, $1 trillion.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.<\/a>

U.S. Atomic Bomb Test, Bikini Atoll, the Marshall Islands, 1946.
Courtesy: Flikr Creative Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

Critics charge that the expenditure of this staggering sum will either bankrupt the country or, at the least, require massive cutbacks in funding for other federal government programs. \u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re . . . wondering how the heck we\u2019re going to pay for it,\u201d admitted Brian McKeon, an undersecretary of defense.\u00a0 And we\u2019re \u201cprobably thanking our stars we won\u2019t be here to have to have to answer the question,\u201d he added with a chuckle.<\/p>\n

Of course, this nuclear \u201cmodernization\u201d plan violates the terms of the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which requires the nuclear powers to engage in nuclear disarmament.\u00a0 The plan is also moving forward despite the fact that the U.S. government already possesses roughly 7,000 nuclear weapons that can easily destroy the world.\u00a0 Although climate change might end up accomplishing much the same thing, a nuclear war does have the advantage of terminating life on earth more rapidly.<\/p>\n

This trillion dollar nuclear weapons buildup has yet to inspire any questions about it by the moderators during the numerous presidential debates.\u00a0 Even so, in the course of the campaign, the presidential candidates have begun to reveal their attitudes toward it.<\/p>\n

On the Republican side, the candidates\u2014despite their professed distaste for federal expenditures and \u201cbig government\u201d\u2014have been enthusiastic supporters of this great leap forward in the nuclear arms race.\u00a0 Donald Trump, the frontrunner, contended in his presidential announcement speech that \u201cour nuclear arsenal doesn\u2019t work,\u201d insisting that it is out of date.\u00a0 Although he didn\u2019t mention the $1 trillion price tag for \u201cmodernization,\u201d the program is clearly something he favors, especially given his campaign\u2019s focus on building a U.S. military machine \u201cso big, powerful, and strong that no one will mess with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

His Republican rivals have adopted a similar approach.\u00a0 Marco Rubio, asked while campaigning in Iowa about whether he supported the trillion dollar investment in new nuclear weapons, replied that \u201cwe have to have them.\u00a0 No country in the world faces the threats America faces.\u201d\u00a0 When a peace activist questioned Ted Cruz on the campaign trail about whether he agreed with Ronald Reagan on the need to eliminate nuclear weapons, the Texas senator replied:\u00a0 \u201cI think we\u2019re a long way from that and, in the meantime, we need to be prepared to defend ourselves.\u00a0 The best way to avoid war is to be strong enough that no one wants to mess with the United States.\u201d\u00a0 Apparently, Republican candidates are particularly worried about being \u201cmessed with.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton has been more ambiguous about her stance toward a dramatic expansion of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.\u00a0 Asked by a peace activist about the trillion dollar nuclear plan, she replied that she would \u201clook into that,\u201d adding:\u00a0 \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense to me.\u201d\u00a0 Even so, like other issues that the former secretary of defense has promised to \u201clook into,\u201d this one remains unresolved.\u00a0 Moreover, the \u201cNational Security\u201d section of her campaign website promises that she will maintain the \u201cstrongest military the world has ever known\u201d\u2014not a propitious sign for critics of nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

Only Bernie Sanders has adopted a position of outright rejection.\u00a0 In May 2015, shortly after declaring his candidacy, Sanders was asked at a public meeting about the trillion dollar nuclear weapons program.\u00a0 He replied:\u00a0 \u201cWhat all of this is about is our national priorities.\u00a0 Who are we as a people?\u00a0 Does Congress listen to the military-industrial complex\u201d that \u201chas never seen a war that they didn\u2019t like?\u00a0 Or do we listen to the people of this country who are hurting?\u201d\u00a0 In fact, Sanders is one of only three U.S. Senators who support the SANE Act, legislation that would significantly reduce U.S. government spending on nuclear weapons.\u00a0 In addition, on the campaign trail, Sanders has not only called for cuts in spending on nuclear weapons, but has affirmed his support for their total abolition.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, given the failure of the presidential debate moderators to raise the issue of nuclear weapons \u201cmodernization,\u201d the American people have been left largely uninformed about the candidates\u2019 opinions on this subject.\u00a0 So, if Americans would like more light shed on their future president\u2019s response to this enormously expensive surge in the nuclear arms race, it looks like they are the ones who are going to have to ask the candidates the trillion dollar question.<\/p>\n

________________________________________<\/p>\n

Dr. Lawrence Wittner<\/em><\/a>, syndicated by <\/em>PeaceVoice<\/em><\/a>, is Professor of History emeritus at SUNY\/Albany.\u00a0 His latest book is a satirical novel about university corporatization and rebellion, <\/em>What\u2019s Going On at UAardvark?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isn\u2019t it odd that America\u2019s largest single public expenditure for the coming decades has received no attention in the presidential debates? It is for a 30-year program to \u201cmodernize\u201d the U.S. nuclear arsenal and production facilities. Although President Obama began his administration with a dramatic public commitment to build a nuclear weapons-free world, that commitment has long ago dwindled and died. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weapons-of-mass-destruction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}