Donald Trump made an announcement in Asia that literally shocked the world.
Trump announced that the United States would once again start testing its nuclear arsenal, something that has not been done in more than three decades.
There are some doubts that this will actually take place, but Trump says it is necessary due to threats against our country from our adversaries.
Currently, there are only nine countries in the entire world that possess nuclear weapons, with the majority of the global arsenal housed in the United States and Russia.
Trump claimed that the United States has more nuclear weapons than any other country, but from current reports, we are actually second behind Russia in total warheads by about 300.
Russia has about 5,400, followed by the United States at about 5,100, then the numbers go down rather significantly.
China has about 600, France has about 290, the U.K. has about 225, India has about 180, Pakistan has about 170, Israel has about 90, and North Korea is believed to have about 50 nuclear warheads in its arsenal.
Considering the fact that it only takes one, that is pretty much an end-of-world scenario if they were all fired off during a conflict.
During the Reagan-Bush administrations, the United States was being pressured by Russia to halt its testing of nuclear weapons.
When Bill Clinton took over as president in 1993, he moved the country to halt testing to fall in line with Russia, which had paused its testing for about a year during the Reagan-Bush administration as well.
The Hatfield-Exon-Mitchell Amendment was introduced in 1993, which suspended nuclear testing, while also calling for it to be completely halted by the end of the fiscal year 1996.
Clinton then led the charge to have nuclear testing banned around the world, with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) being open for signatures in September 1996. Sixty-six countries, including the United States, immediately signed the resolution. Since then, only three countries have tested their nuclear weapons, with North Korea being the last to do so nearly a decade ago.
Trump is not really one to respect past resolutions if they do not jibe with his agenda, so it will be interesting to see what happens with the CTBT. And to be quite honest, I am not even sure Trump realized that the treaty existed when he said he was going to start testing again.
The president stated, "Because of the tremendous destructive power, I HATED to do it, but had no choice! Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years. Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately."
When Trump was asked about environmental impacts, he responded, "I don’t think so. I think we have it pretty well locked up. But we have more than anybody, and I see them testing. I say, well, they’re testing, we have to test too. I’d like to see a deneutralization … because we have so many. Russia’s second and China’s third. China will catch up within four or five years. I think de-escalation, or denuclearization, would be tremendous. We’re actually talking to Russia about that, and China would be added to that if we do something."
First, there are no signs that anyone else is testing, so I am curious where that information came from. Second, as noted, Trump has his totals off according to verified numbers from several agencies, unless we have nukes that have not been reported, which would push us ahead of the Russians. Not trying to nit-pick Trump here, but when you make an announcement of this magnitude, you need to have your facts straight and proof of the allegations being made, and neither was the case here. I am looking forward to follow-up answers from the White House on this, as it is no small matter.
