Eight Deadly Nuclear Sins
By Peter Huessy
May 20, 2025
The critics of U.S. nuclear modernization have a set of nuclear catechisms of which they accuse America’s nuclear enterprise of being guilty. The latest rendition of this was by Jimmy Tobias in the Nation magazine. He cites eight deadly nuclear sins. They are: (1) The U.S. is starting an arms race; (2) America’s allies are contributing to the arms race as well; (3) The U.S. is needlessly expanding its nuclear arsenal; (4) For dozens of American aerospace companies, nuclear weapons are simply a profit making business of $1.7 trillion; (5) ICBMs are on a dangerous hair trigger alert; (6) ICBMs are nothing more than a sponge to draw enemy missiles away from hitting U.S. cities but would still lead to tens of millions of U.S. deaths; (7) The U.S. is not pursuing arms control with enough vigor; and (8) Threatening retaliation as the basis for nuclear deterrence is wrongheaded and must be discarded.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Well first he actually starts off by—albeit grudgingly-- getting one thing right. He cites Dr. Jil Hruby, the recently retired Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administrator, laying out the nuclear threats to the United States: Russia, Hruby said, “has in recent years stationed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus; withdrawn its ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; and lowered its threshold for nuclear weapons use. It also seems to be exploring new nuclear-weapons delivery technologies, including space-based weapons. Further south, China is rapidly expanding the size of its nuclear arsenal and appears to be moving away from a no-first-use policy for launching nuclear weapons. North Korea persists in building up its nuclear program, rattling the region with its regular missile tests, while Pakistan is developing its own intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities, and Iran continues to enrich uranium.”
But then Tobias turns to blaming America and its allies for contributing to what he describes as a nuclear “disequilibrium.” But while Russia, China and North Korea are adding hundreds of warheads annually, the only U.S. ally adding warheads is India, which one analysis has guessed that New Delhi has added all of 8 warheads to its arsenal since 2023, reaching 172 warheads compared, for example, to 160 in Pakistan.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2025/05/20/eight_deadly_nuclear_sins_1111342.html
