US nuclear arsenal to undergo costliest-ever modernization process
Press TV – September 16, 2012
The United States is to treat its nuclear arsenal to the costliest modernization process ever, with the projected expenditure estimated to cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
The Washington Post reported the prospect of the wholesale overhaul on Saturday, saying the country’s 5,113-strong arsenal of nuclear warheads is to undergo an upgrade and maintenance process as part of the plan.
The paper added that the plan also includes renovation of aging nuclear facilities, and replacement of old delivery systems.
The daily withheld the figure on the price tag, but the Washington think-tank Stimson Center has estimated the cost at least $352 billion over the next decade. Others have said the figure could far exceed the amount.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and I haven’t seen a moment like this,” said Thomas P. D’Agostino, who leads the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
The stockpile houses seven types of weapons, upgrading only the B61 thermonuclear bomb among is likely to cost $10 billion over five years, while Washington would have to lavish $110 billion to build 12 replacements for the aging Ohio-class submarines.
The country is, meanwhile, spending $162 million per airplane to build a nuclear-capable fleet of the F-35 strike aircraft to replace existing warplanes.
The US is the only country to have ever used atomic bombs against another nation.
The prospective overhaul flies in the face of the country’s persisting economic woes and the international calls for a nuclear-weapon-free world.
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Poll: 76% of Americans favor cutting military spending
Press TV – July 17, 2012
The results of a new survey indicate that most Americans, from both Democratic and Republican congressional districts, support the reduction of the country’s military spending.
The result of the poll, published on July 16, indicated that 76 percent of Americans favored slashing of the defense budget, while only 20 percent approved of increasing the military spending.
The poll was conducted by the Program for Public Consultation (PPC), a newly-established joint program at the University of Maryland, US-based nonprofit investigative journalism organization, the Center for Public Integrity, and the Stimson Center, a nonprofit global security think tank.
According to Steven Kull, the director of the PPC, those respondents, who lived in Republican districts advised a 15-percent reduction in defense spending, while those from Democratic districts proposed an average 28-percent cut.
The poll further showed that the main reason behind the American citizens’ support for the cuts is their strong belief that a large amount of the military budget goes to waste.
The view is held by 80 percent of the participants in Republican districts and 86 percent of the respondents in Democratic districts, the study showed.
The soaring military spending comes despite the Obama administration’s cuts in public spending to compensate for the budget deficit.
The US has reportedly spent over USD one trillion in taxpayer money on its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.
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From the Archives
The lies about the 1967 war are still more powerful than the truth
By Alan Hart | June 4, 2012
In retrospect it can be seen that the 1967 war, the Six Days War, was the turning point in the relationship between the Zionist state of Israel and the Jews of the world (the majority of Jews who prefer to live not in Israel but as citizens of many other nations). Until the 1967 war, and with the exception of a minority of who were politically active, most non-Israeli Jews did not have – how can I put it? – a great empathy with Zionism’s child. Israel was there and, in the sub-consciousness, a refuge of last resort; but the Jewish nationalism it represented had not generated the overtly enthusiastic support of the Jews of the world. The Jews of Israel were in their chosen place and the Jews of the world were in their chosen places. There was not, so to speak, a great feeling of togetherness. At a point David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding father and first prime minister, was so disillusioned by the indifference of world Jewry that he went public with his criticism – not enough Jews were coming to live in Israel.
So how and why did the 1967 war transform the relationship between the Jews of the world and Israel? … continue
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