America’s latest Nuclear Posture Review became the subjected of heated dicssions in the Pentagon during the traditional rollout before being released to the public less than a week ago.
It’s a rule of thumb now that America’s nuclear doctrine is being reviewed by every cabinet with Bill Clinton being the man who started this trend. Since him America’s startegy of nuclear deterrence has suffered a number of drastic changes, with Trump’s team becoming the fourth to review and ajust it. Over the years, Washington’s priorities have been shifting drastically, which can be traced in every revision of the Nuclear Posture Review.
Thus, the “second” edition of NPR was adopted in 2002 by the Bush administration, with the United States unilaterally withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
The next revision was adopted in 2010, when President Barack Obama was trying asume the posture of champion peacekeeper by announcing his intensions to take the lead in the fight against nuclear proliferation, while launching countless wars abroad. However, he wouldn’t object to the deployement of American anti-missile systems in Europe,explaining this decision by the alleged threat that Iran’s nuclear program could be presenting to the world. However, when Tehran signed a deal in the 5+1 framework, abandonning any ambition to obtain nuclear weapons, Washington would have no second thoughts about advancing its anti-missile deployement. Predictably, Washington dind’t care much about its promise to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty just as well.
However, according to document addopted in 2010, the US pledged not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states, with the exception of Iran and North Korea, while also turning its bank on the development of nukes with bunker busting capabilities. Additionaly, that revision of the Nuclear Posture Review would put a limit on the modernization of nuclear weapons, with any modification of the existing nuclear devices requiring a special permission from the president.
As for Donald Trump, unlike his predecessor, he doesn’t care much about hiding his true intentions. Immediately after his innaguration this Republican powerhorse made it clear that he’s inclined to advance US supremacy in all things nuclear. Upon taking office, Trump would instruct his Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis to launch a revision of all of Pentagon’s nuclear forces, that was due to be finished last month.
This latest revision of the Nuclear Posture Review criticizes the efforts made by previous administrations to put a limit to the role that nuclear forces were playing in the Americna defense doctrine for almost three decades. Due to Trump’s new security strategy, Washington now thinks it’s okay to use nuclear as a form of retaliation for ‘non-nuclear strategic attacks’.
It’s no wonder that this latest revision of the Nuclear Posture Review provoked massive criticism all across the globe. Thus, numerous nuclear nonproliferation groups have already stated that these latest adjustments won’t make the US, as well as the whole world a much safer place. It’s been noted that a co-founded of the Henry Stimson Center, Washington-based non-partisan think tank, Barry Blehman has warned that America that it is now standing on the brink of a nuclar war.
According to the latest revision of the Nuclear Posture Review, the White House regards as a possible threat the nuclear arsenals of Russia, North Korea and China. Curiously enough, the Iranian nuclear program is of particular concern to the Trump administration yet again. It doesn’t take a nuclear expert to point out that the concepts of “security” and “supremacy” are confused in this latest revision, therefore it does not explicitly prohibit the repetition of the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The rigid opposition that Washington has been showing to the UN-proposed treaty on the complete prohibition of nuclear weapons doesn’t leave much room for optimism just as well. It’s clear that American special interests are delusional as they are naive enough to believe that if they expand the list of pretexts for the deployment of weapons of mass destruction they will somehow be able to attain the geopolitical goals they have so far failed to even come close to.
The document has already been criticized by high-ranking officials in many countries.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, speaking about the new nuclear doctrine of the United States, noted the contradictory position of Washington on the issue of the proliferation of nuclear weapons, while describind the policies pursued by the White House as an example of ‘unscrupulous’ hypocrisy. As Roukhani explained, on the one hand, American believes that one’s use of weapons of mass destruction constitutes crime against humanity, while at the same time Washington is engaged inn an arms race aimed at modernizing American nuclear arsenals, that are then going to be used against its rivals.
Japanese Hibakusha groups that are formed by the survivors of American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have unilaterally criticized the new nuclear doctrine of the United States, since it burries the prospect of the renunciation of nuclear weapons. The head of one of these groups from Nagasaki, Koichi Cavanaugh admitted that he was shocked by the new nuclear doctrine of the US, since after the adoption in 2017 of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, he had hopes that the big goal would finally be achieved. Cavanaugh expressed fear that the development of low-power nuclear devices increase the danger of nuclear weapons use in future conflicts.
Washington’s decision to develop new tactical nuclear devices marks the launch of a new round of the nuclear arms race notes Germany’s Foreign Ministe, Sigmar Gabriel.
Both Moscow and Beijing have expressed their deep disappointment over this latest revision of Nuclear Posture Review, as it has a clearly anti-Russian and anti-Chinese angle. These statements are confirmed by the latest revalation of the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Paul Selva that he made at the Defense Writers Group meeting. According to Selva, the Pentagon is developing scenarios of a possible war with Russia or China.
It seems that the Cold War era classic movie about Dr.Strangelove is coming to fruition, as Trump has once again taught America “to love the bomb.” That’s is precisely why Trump’s new nuclear doctrine is best described as an attempt to turn the people of the planet into hostages of Washington’s ambitions, dissatisfactions and fears.