The Real Reason Obama Revealed Nuke Numbers
Baker Spring /
It is on the basis of unconvincing justifications that the Obama Administration on May 3rd de-classified and released to the public a comprehensive listing of the number of nuclear weapons in the U.S. stockpile. The newly released data covers the period from fiscal 1962 through 2009 and shows that as of the end of fiscal year 2009 the U.S. had 5,113 nuclear weapons in its stockpile. The Administration is providing two justifications. The first is that the release is important to pursuing non-proliferation goals. The second is that it will assist the pursuit of another arms control treaty with Russia that will cover all nuclear weapons, and not just deployed strategic nuclear weapons.
The first justification implies that the U.S. must publicly demonstrate that it is on the path to reducing its nuclear stockpile to zero in order to induce other states with nuclear weapons to join the non-proliferation regime or come into compliance with their nonproliferation obligations. It is highly unlikely that this inducement will have its intended effect. In fact, it is more likely to spur greater proliferation as rogue regimes see an opportunity exploit the vacuum the Administration’s nuclear disarmament policy is creating and U.S. friends and allies see the need to fill this vacuum with nuclear weapons of their own. (more…)