{"id":12274,"date":"2012-02-15T14:25:24","date_gmt":"2012-02-15T19:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=12274"},"modified":"2012-02-15T14:28:22","modified_gmt":"2012-02-15T19:28:22","slug":"undefending-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=12274","title":{"rendered":"Undefending America"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

Image via Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n

Bill Gertz is well known for his books and articles on national defense. He posted an article yesterday at the Washington Free Beacon<\/a>\u00a0yesterday about the impact of President Obama’s policies on national security.<\/p>\n

The article states:<\/p>\n

President Obama has ordered the Pentagon to consider cutting U.S. strategic nuclear forces to as low as 300 deployed warheads\u2014below the number believed to be in China\u2019s arsenal and far fewer than current Russian strategic warhead stocks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pentagon and military planners were asked to develop three force levels for the U.S. arsenal of deployed strategic nuclear warheads: a force of 1,100 to 1,000 warheads; a second scenario of between 700 and 800 warheads; and the lowest level of between 300 and 400 warheads.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A congressional official said no president in the past ever told the Pentagon to conduct a review based on specific numbers of warheads.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This review is not based on world conditions, as in the past, but simply on numbers. According the the article, the drastic cuts have come under fire from senior military leaders, but there have been no public comments.<\/p>\n

One retired Air Force General commented:<\/p>\n

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney said even considering such deep strategic cuts is irrational.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNo sane military leader would condone 300 to 400 warheads for an effective nuclear deterrent strategy,\u201d McInerney (Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney) told the Washington Free Beacon.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGoing down to 1000 to 1,100 is risky enough and frankly in today\u2019s world, very risky. The purpose of our nuclear force structure is to deter any adversary from even thinking that they could minimize our attack options. Such thinking is very dangerous and will only encourage our adversaries to make bold decisions.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

A congressional official and former administration official familiar with the ongoing review said the bottom level warhead levels raise serious questions about whether a nuclear force that size would deter adversaries. It also would raise questions about so-called \u201cextended deterrence,\u201d the threat to use nuclear weapons against states like North Korea on behalf of allies like Japan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The new strategic review reflects the president\u2019s 2009 speech in Prague when he said the United States would pursue peace and security in a world \u201cwithout nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I too would like to see a world without nuclear weapons, but I would also like to see a world where America is ready and able to defend herself and her friends.<\/p>\n

The article concludes with the following comment:<\/p>\n

Kenneth deGraffenreid, a former Reagan administration National Security Council official, said in an interview that the plans for sharp nuclear cuts are \u201cpart of the administration\u2019s purposeful decline of American military power.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The damage to nuclear forces is compounded by \u201cmassive reductions across the board in defense spending on conventional forces,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDefense is the only part of government this administration is reducing,\u201d he said. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a single dollar of stimulus money spent on defense.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s time to elect a President who will defend America–both verbally and physically.<\/p>\n

\"Enhanced<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill Gertz is well known for his books and articles on national defense. He posted an article yesterday at the Washington Free Beacon\u00a0yesterday about the impact of President Obama’s policies on national security. The article states: President Obama has ordered … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[97,2179,1746,1185,562,479,2178,285],"class_list":["post-12274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-barack-obama","tag-bill-gertz","tag-defense-cuts","tag-nuclear-weapon","tag-obama","tag-pentagon","tag-thomas-mcinerney","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12274"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12282,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12274\/revisions\/12282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}