Prelate criticizes expense of modernizing nuclear weapons
October 31, 2014
In a letter to the US secretary of energy, the chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace criticized the “expanding US budget for nuclear weapons.”
“The Congressional Budget Office estimated that $355 billion will be spent on nuclear forces over the next decade,” said Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines. “Much of this increase in nuclear spending is attributable to efforts to modernize nuclear forces.”
“The seeming indefinite reliance of the United States on a policy of nuclear deterrence, especially one that includes significant new investments in nuclear weapons, undermines President Obama’s stated goal of a world free of nuclear weapons,” the prelate added.
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Posted by: filioque -
Nov. 01, 2014 2:09 AM ET USA
1jn416 has it exactly right. The nuclear genie is long since out of the bottle and it is not going back in. Our only choice is to refurbish to extend the life of what we have, which is a number greatly reduced from 25 years ago. The morally correct option is to maintain a credible deterrent.
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Posted by: 1Jn416 -
Oct. 31, 2014 10:34 AM ET USA
Our nuclear missiles and warheads are decades old and we're not building any new ones; heaven forbid we modernize (i.e., refurbish) what we have. The Russians and the Chinese both are building new weapons, and China is for the first time deploying ballistic missile submarines. So long as the major world powers have nuclear arsenals, and small states like N. Korea threaten regional stability w/ nukes, we must maintain our arsenal. That's reality, not immorality.
