OBAMA’S NUKE LEGACY

Wary of sounding like a Donald Trump apologist, I would like to point out that he’s a bit late in calling for a strengthening and expansion of the US’s nuclear capability ( Back to Black, January 14.) This is already well under way, endorsed by President Barack Obama’s administration in January 2016, and includes the development of nucleartipped cruise missiles and a

“dial-a-yield” hydrogen bomb – the B61-12 – that can be set to bust deeply buried bunkers or take out cities with a yield three times that of the Hiroshima bomb.

This expansion programme is expected to cost US$1 trillion over the next 30 years.

Obama, of course, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, in part for pledging to “reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our

national security strategy”.

Geoff Palmer (Mt Victoria, Wellington)