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Pros And Cons Of United States Nuclear Weapons

1333 Words6 Pages

The United States is by every metric the world’s sole, remaining superpower; however, per the National Priorities Project, “the United States still spends 54% of its GDP on its military, which translates into 598.5 billion dollars,” (National Priorities Project). The United States has 1,481 warheads, with 741 delivery vehicles, a mere 7 of these warheads could eliminate all life on the continent of Africa. The question then becomes why do we need so many of these weapons? The answer is we don’t. This paper will illustrate why the United States needs to eliminate these weapons and encourage others to do so as well.
The Tyranny of Numbers
Nuclear weapons are still the number one threat to human existence known to man. The United States and Russia …show more content…

The United States has had several accidents involving nuclear weapons and have lost so many nuclear weapons they had to develop a term for them, known as “Broken Arrows.” The air force accidentally dropped weapons near Atlantic City, New Jersey, Goldsboro, North Carolina, off the Okinawa coast, and even near Thule Air Base in Greenland. The state of the United States Nuclear Arsenal is so poor this crisis prompted former President Barrack Obama to ask for an additional 89 billion dollars to upgrade nuclear defense systems, per CNN. The U.S. military’s spending priorities are so out of order, per CNN “U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), which found that the Pentagon was still using 1970s-era computing systems that require "eight-inch floppy disks." Such disks were already becoming obsolete by the end of that decade, being edged out by smaller, non-floppy 3.5 to 5.25-inch disks, before being almost completely replaced by the CD in the late 90s. Except in Washington that is. The GAO report says that U.S. government departments spend upwards of $60 billion a year on operating and maintaining out-of-date technologies. That's three times the investment on modern IT systems,” (Griffiths, James).
If the problem is this bad then why do so many want build more nuclear …show more content…

The number 300 is not an arbitrary number I have picked out of the blue, it is a calculated, objective view on what could be done as well as affordably maintained by the taxpayer. The 300 warheads would give you an optimal mix of about 100 nuclear warheads at sea, 50 missiles silo’s, 50 mobile launch delivery systems or mobile land based systems, as well as 100 bombs available for deployment by air. The number 300 allows for a successful continuation of the nuclear triad and would create a much more manageable strategic situation for the United States. The second part of the solution has to be policy, the United States is the only country on earth who has used a nuclear weapon on another, furthermore it is the only country on earth who maintains “first strike,” which means the United States will not wait for an attack, it will attack first if it perceives an opponent might strike

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