Chuck Spinney and Pierre Sprey — Sleepwalking Into a Nuclear Arms Race with Russia

The Nuclear Question is becoming increasingly obfuscated by spin and lobbying as the West sleepwalks into Cold War II — a walk made all the more dangerous when the loose lips of the U.S. tweeter-in-chief announced that another nuclear arms race is a great idea (see link, link, link). Two Cold War II issues are central and almost never addressed: What will be the Russians' understanding of all the propaganda surrounding the Nuclear Question and the looming American defense spendup? And how might they act on this understanding?

The Blaster
Sleepwalking Into a Nuclear Arms Race with Russia
Chuck Spinney and Pierre Sprey

Sputnik — Chinese Press Calls for Nuclear Build-Up to Face Trump’s US

Donald Trump's good cop-bad cop China policy.

Sputnik International
Chinese Press Calls for Nuclear Build-Up to Face Trump’s US

Beijing Welcomes Appointment of Xi Jinping's Friend as US Ambassador to China

Kris Osborn — Get Ready, Russia and China: The U.S. Air Force Wants 400 New ICBMs

Air Force plans to build at least 400 new high-tech ICBMs intended to preserve millions of lives by ensuring annhiliation of anyone choosing to launch a nuclear attack. The idea is to prevent major power wars.

No, this is not The Onion.

The National Interest
Get Ready, Russia and China: The U.S. Air Force Wants 400 New ICBMs
Kris Osborn | Managing Editor of Scout Warrior

However, even if the Armata was as dangerous as the British report claims, Russia is not likely to be able to afford the expensive new machine in the huge quantities.

Russia's Armata T-14 Tank Could Be Super Dangerous on the Battlefield (But There Is One Simple Problem)

Dave Majumdar | defense editor of The National Interest

The old "We'll outspend them" stance.

Oh, wait. Can the US really "afford" to outspend Russia and China?

Report: Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton Face a $20,000,000,000,000 Debt BombFred Lucas 

Maybe not the way these people look at it, unaware of currency sovereignty.

Chuck Spinney — New Nukes for a New Cold War

President Obama’s administration is planting the seed money for an across-the-board-modernization of nuclear weapons, delivery systems, and support systems that will cost at least a trillion dollars (more likely $2 trillion to $3 trillion, IMO) over the next 15-30 years.…

Given the highly evolved nature of the domestic politics driving defense spending (i.e., the domestic operations of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex (I described this in “The Domestic Roots of Perpetual War”), history shows the golden cornucopia of this nuc “bow wave” or programs will quickly evolve into an unstoppable tsunami of front-loaded and politically engineered contracts and subcontracts that will grow over time to overwhelm and paralyze future Presidents and Congresses for the next 20-30 years.

This kind of budget time bomb has happened at least twice before in the non-nuclear part of the defense budget: The first began when the Nixon-Ford Administration planted the seeds of defense budget hysteria by starting a bow wave of new modernization programs, financed in the short term by readiness and force structure reductions in early-to-mid 1970s. These reductions led to budget pressures that exploded in the late 1970s and 1980s when President Jimmy Carter began growing the defense budget and President Ronald Reagan accelerated that growth.Get ready for huge budget deficits or cuts in domestic spending as the arms race accelerates, since the chances of raising taxes is low.

Spinney doesn’t mention it, but there is also the thinking that while the US can afford this, Russia and China, who will be forced to respond, will not. This is as much as piece of economic warfare as it is about military preparedness.

Ironic or disingenuous coming from a president that has called for nuclear disarmament.

Consortium News
New Nukes for a New Cold War

Chuck Spinney