# Obama won't nuke those w/o nukes (except NK and Iran)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wont-nuke-those-w-o-nukes-except-nk-and-iran/535203>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [April 6, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wont-nuke-those-w-o-nukes-except-nk-and-iran/535203 "2010-04-06T21:43:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wont-nuke-those-w-o-nukes-except-nk-and-iran/535203/41 "2010-04-20T02:51:36Z")

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Nice **Ravenman** , very well put.

In my mind we do need nuclear weapons as a deterrent, but really only with regards to China and Russia (and a bit with North Korea). And, let’s face it, we will probably in reality not need it. Our relationship with China, the country that is by far the largest threat to us, is very complex right now. They are (IIRC) our biggest trading partner and we are theirs. They are starting to commit huge resources to their armed forces, purchasing carriers and submarines from Russia and trying to engineer their own. They have been educating about 100 times the number of engineers and scientist every year than the US. Nukes are not really going to help us with this.

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**Author:** ![Dr.Crap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.crap/32/3131_2.png) [@Dr.Crap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Crap)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2010, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-wont-nuke-those-w-o-nukes-except-nk-and-iran/535203/42 "2010-04-21T23:27:03Z")

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Because all great powers and aspirants pine to stockpile _something_:

[

> [@The Washington Post](#):
>
> As the White House pushes for cuts in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, the Pentagon is developing a weapon to help fill the gap: missiles armed with conventional warheads that could strike anywhere in the world in less than an hour.
> 
> The Prompt Global Strike program, which the Pentagon has been developing for several years, is already raising hackles in Moscow, where Russian officials predict it could trigger a nonnuclear arms race and complicate President Obama’s long-term vision of ridding the world of nuclear weapons.  
> …  
> “World states will hardly accept a situation in which nuclear weapons disappear, but weapons that are no less destabilizing emerge in the hands of certain members of the international community,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters Tuesday in Moscow.  
> …  
> The administration has asked Congress for $240 million for next year’s Prompt Global Strike development programs, a 45 percent increase from the current budget. The military forecasts a total of $2 billion in development costs through 2015 – a relative bargain by Pentagon standards.  
> …  
> But proponents of Prompt Global Strike said its primary value would be in adding a level of deterrence to the U.S. nuclear arsenal. "At the end of the day, anybody who would be your adversary walks away thinking, ‘If I’m going to do this, I’m going to pay dearly,’ " [Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] said last month. “There just can’t be any doubt in their mind.”

]([http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/07/AR2010040704920.html?sid%3DST2010040801040](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/07/AR2010040704920.html?sid%3DST2010040801040))

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