Posts in "Nuclear Weapons"

By Peter St.Jean at 2:37PM

Jul 13, 2010

2053

That's the number of nuclear weapons that have been set off so far, and the United States accounted for fully half of those. Over $5 trillion has been spent to date on nuclear weapon development, testing and cleanup. There isn't a single federal budget item that is more entirely without merit than nuclear spending.

Nuclear weapons have no other application than total destruction. They can't be used for defensive purposes, peacekeeping, or even "surgical strikes." There are no excuses for them -- not even the bad ones the government usually uses to justify excessive military spending. And yet, when you add it all up, nuclear weapons have cost us more in the past 50 years than any other single program except Social Security.

If congress is sincere about wanting to cut spending, this is a perfect place to start.

Read more about the fiscal implications of the nuclear program here.

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By Matt Ciepielowski at 4:05PM

Apr 14, 2010

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

chaaaaaaaaaaaaange In a move that should surprise no one, President Obama took a page from the Bush playbook at the recent Nuclear Security Summit, and told us all we should be very, very scared of terrorists getting nuclear weapons.

According to Obama, "the risk of a nuclear confrontation between nations has gone down, but the risk of nuclear attack has gone up."

But in the Washington Times article, a member of the congressional Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism claims otherwise-

We were given briefings and when we tried to find specific intelligence on the threat of any known terrorist efforts to get a bomb, the answer was we did not have any.

Thank God America voted for change, right?

More YAL coverage of the summit by Roy Antoun here.

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By Brian Beyer at 5:55AM

Apr 14, 2010

The Empire's Scribes

As I will be attending the University of Richmond in the fall as a freshman, I decided to look at the school newspaper, The Collegian. I was hoping to see more about politics and economics, but the paper is largely dedicated to the current happenings of the school. One article that stood out to me, however, was "Iran Threatens World Peace.” For a second, I thought I was on the Fox News or MSNBC website, but I was wrong. And just as those two mainstream media establishments are full of errors and exaggerated claims, so is this one.

Daniel Letovsky, a senior, opens the article with an exaggerated and outright false claim: “The Islamic Republic of Iran is racing down the home stretch towards acquiring the nuclear weapons with which they wish to dominate the Middle East.”

This stands in direct contradiction to a report issued to Congress by the Director of National Intelligence. The report says, “We continue to asses Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons though we do not know whether Tehran eventually will decide to produce nuclear weapons.”

Let's Follow China on This One

China has sensibly ruled out any possibility of pursuing a fourth round of sanctions on Iran. Favoring diplomacy over war, something very uncommon these days, Zhang Yesui, a Chinese envoy to the UN said, "The efforts aimed at diplomatic negotiations on the Iranian nuclear issue still need some time and patience." This all comes after the US rejected a deal with Iran which would give Iran higher-enriched uranium to be used at an IAEA-inspected, US-built reactor in exchange for Iran's 2 tons of low enriched uranium. As a result, Iran will enrich uranium to the crucial 20% benchmark which allows for an "extremely crude nuclear weapon."

Rather than pursuing peaceful diplomatic talks that would end up making Iran's nuclear program more visible, the US preferred to go the W. Bush route of isolation and punishment. For now, because of China's veto power, new sanctions will be put off. Maybe when we're not depriving Iranians of the bare necessities, we will rethink our policy. That would be change we can believe in.

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By Dustin Reid at 5:08PM

Nov 4, 2009

How well has Obama Kept Foreign Policy Promises?

OFP

Huffington Post posed a series of questions on Monday to people in the "international community" to examine and think of Obama's performance to date -- primarily his foreign policy -- now that we have approached the one year mark since the election. Now, I assume they were surveying those outside of the U.S. but what does the international community really mean? I took it upon myself to give an account. They were supposed to publish the most "thoughtful" responses yesterday, but after scouring their site I could not find anything. No worries, I have an outlet here.

Judge Napolitano educates the uneducated

Poor Judge. His concerns are answered with a "so what?" Judge Napolitano follows with "So what, needs to be followed with so what young people die? So what that the government scares us so that we will give it more power." This is why ethics must be integrated into our politics here at home and abroad. The "so what" wouldn't even be a question if we abided by our constitution and our dedication to limited government.

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By Andrew Smith at 11:27AM

Sep 9, 2009

This sounds familiar...

So Iran is dangerously close to developing a nuclear weapon. Really? Haven't we heard this gargle-mesh before? Why would we believe it THIS TIME?! Oh brother...

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By Bonnie Kristian at 1:41PM

Jun 11, 2009

Mixed Signals to North Korea

As the small and poor communist nation continues to make its way toward developing a nuclear arsenal, State Department nominees and officials have clearly stated their absolute intolerance of such a situation:

Speaking at his Senate confirmation hearing Kurt Campbell, the administration’s nominee for Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian affairs, declared that if confirmed he would “make