{"id":6806,"date":"2017-01-09T18:47:39","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T18:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/?p=6806"},"modified":"2017-01-09T18:47:39","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T18:47:39","slug":"trump-going-nuclear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/blog\/2017\/01\/trump-going-nuclear\/","title":{"rendered":"What Everyone is Missing About Trump Literally Going Nuclear on Twitter – Article by Carey Wedler"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"The<\/a>Carey Wedler<\/span>
\n<\/big><\/big><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
******************************<\/div>\n
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Trump critics have long cautioned<\/a> that the president-elect\u2019s impending administration will be a disaster, often referencing the potential for nuclear war. Trump can\u2019t be trusted with his hand on the nuclear button,<\/i> many warn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Friday, President-elect Donald Trump confirmed these fears when he tweeted in favor of expanding America\u2019s nuclear arsenal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>His statement drew widespread criticism, with Twitter users sounding the end of the world as we know it. Few people outside Trump\u2019s loyal fan base would deny the severe risks Trump poses by vowing to expand America\u2019s nuclear arsenal. But as the media launches a barrage of condescending condemnations of Trump\u2019s nuclear fantasies, many outlets are ignoring vital context.<\/p>\n

Trump appears to represent chaos and danger and would undoubtedly hamper U.S. \u00a0and global interests by bloating the country\u2019s nuclear weapons systems. His recklessness contrasts starkly with Obama\u2019s seemingly reasoned approach.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Obama asserted<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cOf all the threats to global security and peace, the most dangerous is the proliferation and potential use of nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

But when Obama made those comments, he had already directly contradicted his own rhetoric against the destructive weaponry. During his presidency, he ensured the country\u2019s nuclear triad would be modernized, a massive project that includes<\/a> \u201c<\/i>sweeping nuclear modernizations that include improved weapons, bombers, missiles and submarines.<\/i>\u201d This endeavor is slated to cost over one trillion dollars over the next three decades \u2014 an indicator the U.S. government, under the guidance of Obama, seeks to establish a long-term commitment to nuclear arms.<\/p>\n

This is hardly evidence of a president committed to reducing the influence and dangers of nuclear weapons, even as he preaches<\/a> to other nations about the need to dispose of them. Though he deserves a modicum of credit for committing<\/a> $5 billion to efforts to better secure nuclear weapons, this accounts for less than one percent of the United States\u2019 total military budget. He ultimately<\/a> scaled back his original goals on this endeavor.<\/p>\n

Further, according<\/a> to figures from the Pentagon, \u201cthe current administration has reduced the nuclear stockpile less than any other post-Cold War presidency<\/i>,\u201d the New York Times<\/i> reported<\/a> in May. President Obama \u201creduced the size of the nation\u2019s nuclear stockpile at a far slower rate than did any of his three immediate predecessors, including George Bush and George W. Bush.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

According<\/a> to Hans M. Kristensen of the anti-armament Nuclear Information Project, though Obama\u2019s progress has been disappointing on some fronts, he deserves credit for dismantling some nuclear warheads over the years. Kristensen also cited Russia as a justification for Obama\u2019s less-than-impressive record on disarmament.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis vision of significant reductions and putting an end to Cold War thinking has been undercut by opposition ranging from Congress to the Kremlin<\/i>,\u201d Mr. Kristensen wrote<\/a> in a blog. \u201cAn entrenched and almost ideologically-opposed Congress has fought his arms reduction vision every step of the way.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Kristensen lays some of the blame on tensions with Russia, the president\u2019s own policies have exacerbated this very rift with a country that has more nuclear weapons than the United States, which comes in second place. Amid Obama\u2019s resistance<\/a> to finding common ground with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the fight against the Islamic State and other radical factions in Syria, he has escalated hostilities between the two countries, offering few ill-fated efforts<\/a> to cooperate.<\/p>\n

In one such example, Secretary of State John Kerry insisted<\/a> Russia must be held accountable for bombing hospitals in Syria. This a noble goal \u2014 and the Russian military has inexcusably killed civilians \u2014 but the secretary failed to acknowledge that the United States military bombed<\/a> a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan in 2015 and that the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led assault on Yemen has destroyed<\/a> multiple hospitals<\/a> in the last year and killed thousands of civilians. He also failed to note that the United States has\u00a0killed<\/a>\u00a0one million Iraqis.<\/p>\n

Obama has also publicly adopted the Democratic narrative that Russia hacked the U.S. election and vowed<\/a> retaliation in spite of the fact no evidence has been presented. These accusations led Putin to intimate<\/a> that the U.S. needs to present proof of or, essentially, shut up (interestingly, a Clinton presidency, which, according to establishment figures was thwarted by Russia, would have increased the risk of a nuclear confrontation due to her interventionist approach<\/a> to the Syrian conflict).<\/p>\n

Before these developments, the consistent deterioration of U.S.-Russia ties inspired<\/a> scientists who operate a \u201cDoomsday Clock\u201d to keep the time at three minutes to midnight. Midnight represents doomsday. They wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cThat decision is not good news, but an expression of dismay that world leaders continue to fail to focus their efforts and the world\u2019s attention on reducing the extreme danger posed by nuclear weapons and climate change.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

(Indeed, scientists have warned<\/a> that nuclear weapons are a major threat to the environment, a reality apparently overlooked by President Obama.)<\/p>\n

The ongoing hypocrisy on the part of the Obama administration is exactly why it\u2019s difficult to take outrage about Donald Trump\u2019s nuclear designs seriously.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt Trump is advocating dangerous policies on nuclear weapons, but like many other issues currently terrifying Americans fearful of The Donald, Obama set the stage for Trump to implement his aggressive goals. Obama\u2019s expansion of presidential powers, such as setting the precedent that presidents may kill American citizens without trial<\/a>, will make it that much easier for President Trump to impose ill-advised, risky policies.<\/p>\n

The same is to be expected once Trump takes control of a nuclear arsenal Obama dutifully expanded.<\/p>\n

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Carey Wedler joined Anti-Media as an independent journalist in September of 2014. Her topics of interest include the police and warfare states, the Drug War, the relevance of history to current problems and solutions, and positive developments that drive humanity forward. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California, where she was born and raised.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article (<\/i>What Everyone is Missing About Trump Literally Going Nuclear on Twitter<\/a><\/i>) is free and open-source. You have permission to republish this article under a <\/i>Creative Commons<\/i><\/a> license with attribution to <\/i>Carey Wedler<\/i><\/a> and <\/i>theAntiMedia.org<\/i><\/a>. <\/i>Anti-Media Radio<\/i><\/a><\/strong> airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern\/8 pm Pacific.<\/strong>
\n<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carey Wedler ****************************** Trump critics have long cautioned that the president-elect\u2019s impending administration will be a disaster, often referencing the potential for nuclear war. Trump can\u2019t be trusted with his hand on the nuclear button, many warn. On Friday, President-elect Donald Trump confirmed these fears when he tweeted in favor of expanding America\u2019s nuclear arsenal. His statement drew widespread criticism, with Twitter users sounding the end of the world as we know it. Few people outside Trump\u2019s loyal fan base…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5050,76,4257,570,444,5049,4220,5051,48,4050,33,1665,4354,1222,2449,937,25,2940,43],"class_list":["post-6806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-arms-race","tag-barack-obama","tag-carey-wedler","tag-cold-war","tag-congress","tag-donald-j-trump","tag-donald-trump","tag-doomsday-clock","tag-iraq","tag-john-kerry","tag-military","tag-nuclear-war","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-pentagon","tag-russia","tag-syria","tag-united-states","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6809,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6806\/revisions\/6809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}