Responses to Trump’s comments on boosting U.S. nuclear capability
“Trump wants to expand U.S. nuclear capability,” Dec. 23 news story.
As a nuclear scientist for more than 50 years, many spent studying nuclear fission, I can only shake my head in wonder at President-elect Donald Trump’s naive statements on nuclear weapons. With the U.S. and Russia each possessing stockpiles of 7,000 nuclear warheads, of which roughly 1,500 are deployed by each side, adding more such weapons would be a severe setback for the efforts of previous administrations of both parties to reduce the number of nuclear weapons. The U.S. is already committed to investing $1 trillion to ensure the readiness of our existing warheads. And you can be assured that Russia will follow suit.
If Trump has any persuasive power over Vladimir Putin, he should put it to use to urge mutual reduction of nuclear weapons instead of stimulating further proliferation. Perhaps he should be reminded of message of the movie “War Games”: Nuclear war is like a game of tic-tac-toe — nobody wins!
BBB I am flabbergasted that The Denver Post and much of the national media have interpreted a 110-character tweet from President-elect Donald Trump on the U.S. nuclear force as a change in policy. The Post: “… raising the specter of a new arms race that would reverse decades … .” And: “Trump’s position represents a radical shift in thinking.”
Front-page news. Hand-wringing. Confusion. Some perspective: Trump’s tweets are spontaneous, uncoordinated, usually irrational stray thoughts. Utterances. Nothing more. Didn’t we learn that in the campaign? His tweets don’t reflect a change in anything. Absence of tweets simply means he couldn’t find his charger.
These blurts can’t be ignored, can’t be disregarded, but certainly shouldn’t be taken as anything more than a passing thought. Like the clouds above, or a passing rain shower. Probably more appropriate to call them a gust of wind.
Let’s not overreact to the tweets.
BBB Congressional Republicans are in the best position to keep us safe from an unfolding disaster. In a shocking revelation, Donald Trump stated last week, “Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.” He had previously tweeted approval of Japan and South Korea obtaining nuclear weapons and disapproval of the Iran nuclear agreement.
Since Republicans are in the majority in both houses, they are in the best position to hold their leader in check and keep him from fostering the global catastrophe endorsed by his statements.
Trump seems unaware of how other countries will react to his declarations on nuclear proliferation. Congressional Republicans are best able to either convince their leader how dangerous this is or refuse to follow his lead down a very treacherous path. The alternative is terrifying. We are all in this together and must not let this happen.