Sunday, April 11, 2010

The newest Obama nuclear policy

The Obama nuclear policy is being criticized after President Obama carried out a Nuclear Posture Review and updated the nation's policy on nuclear weapons.

Even though the change is relatively small, some Congressional Republicans are upset about it. Reactors would be bought rather than nukes if the government were to use fast cash to buy them.

Stark raving MAD

According to the article in TIME, the updated Obama nuclear weapons policy changes nothing regarding the default status between Russia and the U.S. Since the dawn of the Cold War, what kept a nuclear exchange from taking place between the two largest nuclear powers was something called “Mutually Assured Destruction,” wherein the nuclear deterrence held by either country would be deployed in the event of the other attacking with theirs.

This means that in the event of a nuclear event, neither sides would be able to find recovery from simple payday cash advances as a result of amount of damage that would be placed upon both sides

Exceptions to non-aggression

Part of the updated nuclear weapons policy is that President Obama has pledged to never initiate a nuclear attack, except against states that do not participate within the Non-nuclear Proliferation Treaty. He also says that there can be no use of nuclear weapons against any states that aren't known to have nuclear weapons.

It is equally a carrot essentially – for states not to develop them – and a stick for – any that might. It insinuates we might nuke rogue states that are developing nuclear weapons. More or less, we won't be aggressors, yet we have room for exceptions.

New nukes nixed

The President has also made it clear we will not build any NEW nuclear weapons. The hawkish among Senate Republicans have balked at this idea, and our nuclear arsenal is aging. But then again, the weapons grade isotope of plutonium, Pu-239, has a half life (the amount of time an element stays in one form, before it decays) of more than 24,000 years, so we’re good for the time being. Respectively the other two half lives of Uranium 233 and Uranium 235 are 160,000 years and 703,800,000 years. However, "new" isn't really defined.

Terrorists are going to pay, and me bomb es su bomb

Obama's nuclear update also implies that the original doctrine of taking exceptions to states harboring and enabling terrorists will be excluded from the treaty nevertheless stands. Also, any country that is at the moment host to any of our stockpiled weapons (such as Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy) can make use of such weapons with our approval in case they seriously have to.

Iran is far away

From an article from Reuters (See: reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6362IJ20100407), Iranian President Ahmadinejad is apparently none too pleased. He said that Obama is “inexperienced and an amateur politician.” He further added that “American politicians are like cowboys. Whenever they have legal shortcomings their hands go to their guns.” The revised Obama nuclear policy, in reality, changes little.



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