According to US President-elect Donald Trump, the US will defeat any opponent in the event of a nuclear arms race.
US President-elect Donald Trump speaks at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, January 18, 2016 (Photo: Reuters / Joshua Roberts)
US President-elect Donald Trump has expressed confidence that Washington would be able to defeat any opponent in the event of a nuclear arms race, a co-host of the MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’, Mika Brzezinski, said.
“Let it be an arms race,” Brzezinski said, quoting Trump. “We will outmatch them at every pass … and outlast them all.”
BREAKING: Trump to #morningjoe on the nukes tweet: ‘Let it be an arms race’ https://t.co/X9FMNtgKPK
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) December 23, 2016
According to the co-host, in this way the President-elect commented his tweet, posted on December 22, according to which the US should significantly expand its capabilities in the field of nuclear weapons.
The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2016
Meanwhile, Sean Spicer, Trump’s newly appointed Press Secretary, appeared on the ‘Today Show’ and answered the question whether Trump was planning to “reverse 40 years of policy in this country.”
“[T]here’s not going to be [an arms race] because he is going to ensure that other countries get the message he is not going to sit back and allow that.”
“What’s going to happen is they will all come to their senses and we will all be just fine.”
“Other countries need to be put on notice that he is not going to sit back and allow them to undermine our safety, our sovereignty. He is going to match other countries and take action.”
WATCH “We’re not going to sit back as a country and allow other countries to expand their nuclear capability.” –@seanspicer re: Trump tweets pic.twitter.com/V85jLsyjcs
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 23, 2016
Trump’s calls to reinforce military nuclear arsenal of the US came on Thursday just as Russian President Vladimir Putin called for Russia to do the same.
“We need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces, especially with missile complexes that can reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defence systems,” Putin said in a speech that recapped military activities in 2016.
The Russian President also added that the country “must carefully monitor any changes in the balance of power and in the political-military situation in the world, especially along Russian borders, and quickly adapt plans for neutralizing threats to our country.”
Today, at the annual press conference, Putin also noted that the US withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty became the catalyst for a new arms race, and the current desire of America to strengthen its nuclear forces is caused by the Russia’s successes in the field of combating anti-missile defense.
The very definition Koop on of irrational exuberance. Sinking taxpayers money into weapons that can never be used while our conventional forces haven’t won a war since WWI. (The Russians won II) and every advanced weapons system has been an expensive failure. How do you think the Russians, with whom you want a rapprochement, are going to view your arms race? As a direct threat?
Let’s be fair, they did win against Japan in WW2. But yes, I agree. Conventional weapons and equipment, if anything, should be the main focus.
I’m glad we agree. I’ll give you Japan including the shameful and unnecessary nuclear bomb ‘tests’ in Hiroshima and Nagasake. Historically, it was the Russians who helped make that possible.
Actually, most of the Japanese army and air force spent the war fighting China, and were then defeated by the Soviets. The overwhelming majority of senior Japanese leaders asked about the cause of Japan’s surrender, (for example, their Prime Minister, and the Commander of the Combined Fleet) pointed to the Soviet defeat of the main army in Manchuria as the cause. We spent a lot of time taking out isolated Japanese island garrisons, including some spectacularly unnecessary and ill-planned beach assaults by the Marines, and merely assisting the British in pushing through Burma..
Don’t forget about all the lend-lease tanks, trucks, food and other. Sure, it was a rip-off, but the situation was so dire even low-quality stuff mattered. US deserve to be called nazi vanquishers, you don’t have to sacrifice 20 millions of people for that.
And forget about arms race. All this ruckus russian military makes? It’s for show, to raise weapon sales and shoo away wannabe agressors. The only possible competition that will matter is in technology of designing future – strategic foresight, programming/AI linguistics, cryptology, cross-discipline synergy, etc. Japanese made solid breakthrough with their 30-year predict-wait-compare program, but Fukushima disaster kinda derailed their success. Massachusetts Institute of Technology is still the biggest player, but for all the funds they get results could be more impressive and with US destabilizing more and more who know how long will MIT keeps it’s progress.
And then there’s Russia =D Since Fukushima we catched up with Japan and some of our developments suggest we achieve already have exclusive know-how in areas MIT doesn’t. All of that – basicly with garage-level resources. Sure, there is huge heritage of soviet methodology school, but researchers made several breakthroughs without state support, little participation of Rosatom corporation doesn’t count. And what they’ve got is already enough to pretty much shape the world to our liking even in case Russia is lost forever. So why should we waste time with obsolete weaponry?
The Syrian military, the DPR militias – and ISIS for that matter – are making pretty good use of obsolete weaponry. The UkoNazis not so much. Anyone who tries to invade and hold a major country where there is a popular will to resist and a revolutionary legacy, movement or tradition – such as Russia, China, Central Asia, Iran or for that matter the US, will find themselves engaging with ever-growing numbers of irregulars who will find innovative and effective ways to use whatever weapons they can lay their hands on or make. Cutting edge high cost high tech weapons appear to be more suited to the needs of professional expeditionary and punitive forces or for deterrence.
What does that have to do with my point?
Hopefully this was just to make the Neocons happy, Charles Krauthammer sounded positively orgasmic when he talked about Trump’s comments. It sounded as if Trump was completely unaware of the Start treaty but I doubt that this is the case since HRC brought it up in every debate and he is not a stupid person.
Contrary to what people think, dumb people do not become billionaires and then beat out 17 other candidates to become President. He knew what to filter out when everyone was offering him ‘free advice’.
Agree completely on El Presidente-elect Trump not being dumb, but very capable.
In reality Russia is strengthening its nuclear triad by deploying Yars, Sarmat and the train ICBM platform. It is re modernizing its bomber force, TU 160 expected to go into production, while design work for the next generation bomber is under development. More Borei submarines with Bulava missiles being deployed, along with development of other nuclear delivery systems. US has no concrete plans to develop a new ICBM, their bomber force and their strategic submarine force is the same as it was 20 years ago. Currently US has an acute problem it needs to rectify in regards to quality control and costs overruns, before deploying reliable systems. Trump has to break up the defense complex monopoly and make it more competitive and cost effective.
well, it must be said that the US has a new strategic bomber in the works as well, although of late they decided not to publish the costs “for national security reasons”. Also in the submarine component, the americans still have an overall advantage in quantity and quality, excluding the Bulava armed Borey class – that gap is nonetheless closing. The land component is pretty much in favor of Russia and will very likely stay there for the next foreseeable future. Also don’t forget China, whose arsenal is not that big but is expanding. They are clearly not on the strategic side of the US if a nuclear arms race (God forbid) should resume. They also announced their stealth bomber in these last few weeks which would make them the third country on earth having the complete nuclear triad.
Are you referring to the B-21 bomber? In regards to the submarine forces, the Russians are building nuclear powered killer/attack submarines that are very capable, albeit at a slow pace. Yes, China has the financial resources to push a conventional and nuclear arms race with the US, an economically be in constant friction of displacing the reserve currency in favor of its yuan.
The B-21, yes.
The defeat of Clinton is a mixed blessing at best, replacing the leading neocon with a leader of the nativist, arch-reactionary faction of the ruling class that would drive the working people down and destroy our unions, our safety net and our environmental and safety protections. The best news, as Saker points out ,is that this represents a split in the ruling class, which opens a crack for the people to get some traction, but without a struggle would be crushed either way.
But Trump, while making nice to Putin and calling off the war on Russia for the moment, is practically declaring war on China. And make no mistake, even if the target is China it is also inevitably targeted at the multipolar world project and “de-dollarization” that Putin’s team identified as their essential strategy and longer term hope, as they maneuver to postpone the war on Russia long enough for the Empire to collapse. What is Russia supposed to do now? Turn their back on what the whole Putin team rightly regards as Russia’s “indispensable alliance”?
And what about Iran? How is Putin supposed to handle Trump’s declared intention of attacking Iran? And what about Snowden? What will Putin do if Trump demands Snowden? Deliver to the torturers the hero whom all the liberty-loving Americans from left to right see as a beacon of hope? If Russia turns its back on Iran, China and Snowden, in the end it will be left alone in the world. I feel deeply certain they all know it, but will they feel they have to do it anyway to buy a few more years?
Now our dear leader Trump has called for a full-bore nuclear arms race. Even if the US effort is hampered by corruption, even if the main motive is super-profits for the arms industry, even if everyone understands a nuclear war is unwinnable, who are the Russians supposed to assume it is aimed at? And how is Trump going to sell it to the American people without generating a crisis with Russia?
No my friends, even if the Deep State lets Trump live we are not out of the woods yet, not by a long shot. I believe Putin will do the right thing if he can, but as always I can’t know what pressure he’s under, and I’m prepared for the worst.
In some way this is a moment like the early ’60’s when the US ruling class and high command were geared up for the project of conquering the Soviet Union. Their project was delayed by the Chinese Revolution and defeat in the Korean War, the Soviet A-Bomb, Kennedy’s refusal to pull the trigger in ’62 and finally getting bogged down and defeated in Vietnam and Brezhnev’s massive missile building program, but they were ready to go. I remember those days and they were serious as cancer about it.
Perhaps Trump will get the US involved on the ground in Iran, Africa, Pakistan and Arabia and the Empire will exhaust its last strength without a global conflagration while giving the anti-Empire forces in the US a focus to mobilize around. Other than gaining another year or two I don’t see how Trump offers us anything more than that.
To draw another historical analogy, if a real Putin-Trump pact emerges, it will doubtless be greeted with universal dismay, the way the world greeted the Stalin-Hitler pact of 1939, a desperate maneuver that will be seen as a great betrayal and as proof that Putin is really the fascist monster the press portrays him to be. The last one only lasted two years, but those two years saw the world alliance against the Soviet Union collapse, which probably saved us from a global fascist victory.
Trump is not going to get involved in wars, nuclear nor conventional, since the consequences of such actions will be detrimental. This is not the 60’s, the balance of power has changed. Putin will not have to shortchange China or Iran, Trump’s motto to make America great will involve economic measures to redress the drain of assets that has been drained from US economy, through globalization….not war, or an insane rearmament program. The Chinese and other Asian countries have to give up some of the benefits they gained over decades by the globalization agenda pushed by the Wall Street. Trump is a business man, if he resorts to any form of conflict it will be of economic nature, he will try to accomplish his agenda through negotiations and alliances.
Thank you Jesus, I hope you’re right!
I agree Heywood, but people really need to stop hanging on every word Trump mutters. Here’s a verb that will become very useful when discussing Trump (or any other U.S. politician):
blo·vi·ate ˈblōvēˌāt/ verb [US informal] gerund or present participle: bloviating talk at length, especially in an inflated or empty way.
Also, in regards to the peace alliance made between the Germans and the Russians, they split Poland among themselves, and left the western alliance without Russia’s participation enabling Hitler to start his western onslaught in 1940.
This is the version of events every American schoolchild knows, but it vastly oversimplifies and distorts the story. My introduction to geopolitics, as a teenager, the book A History of the Cold War, Volume 1, 1917-1950 by DF Fleming fell into my hands and I read it cover to cover.
A rigorous political scientist and colleague of …, he left aside completely the question of whether communism or Stalin were good or bad, right or wrong, and just examined the developing relationship between the Soviet Union and the West from whether their actions made sense in terms of defense of their national interests or whether they were driven by a larger agenda.
Fleming’s detailed study of the ’30’s could be summarized by saying the Soviet Union was doing everything it possibly could to alert the other powers of the danger of NaZi Germany, and finally, watching Hitler take control of one country after another and convinced for good reason that the fix was in and that Hitler would invade with the active or passive support of the rest of Europe, they cut a deal to buy time.
The Red Army invaded Poland two weeks after Hitler’s did, and only after the Polish army had broken. One surprising development, which the Soviets may not have anticipated, was the declaration of war by England and France, which was not supposed to happen. Many of their most anti-Russian leaders felt betrayed by Hitler and started to believe their own propaganda that Naziism and Communism were the same and the pact was real.
From my historical perspective, the Entante, the alliance that existed in WW1 between England, France and Russia was still in effect in 1939. Hitler did not want a two front war from the outset of WW2, subsequently before starting the War in Europe by invading Poland, he wanted to mollify Russia with the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement. When Germany invaded Poland, France and England declared war on Germany, Russia did not, in view of their agreement with the Germans. It is possible Stalin wanted to direct the German jagernaut to the west, against France and England, buying time to get ready for an eventual confrontation with Germany. The problem was, France was defeated very easily, the English withdrew their troops from the continent, and Germany was able to focus on Russia the following year. Nazis looked down on communism and considered it a Jewish creation, subsequently they they wanted to do away with it.
The Russian leader’s comment are absolutely correct given that Russia is currently under sustained attack by US led military and economic forces. The continuing military exercises by NATO along or parallel to the Russian borders and the placement of both offensive and defensive ballistic missile systems in the Baltics and military cooperation with Kiev are all clear offensive postures that only a sick Russia can ignore. You do not need a military scientist to see through the war designs of USA/NATO against the only remaining rational superpower elder. I hope the president- elect does not buy into the ageless and hopeless pro-Establishment hitherto US NWO doctrine of MANIFEST DESTINY; this will be an abuse of trust of the American people in particular and the global population in general who had much hope in the palace coup in the White House (Trump victory). The Americans have been building up new weapons of mass destruction throughout history and putting them to effective use against other populations. It is only rational that its catch-up time for others in pursuit of maintenance of the geopolitical and military balance of power. If Americans are fed up of planetary life they should not bomb this world out of existence; They should leave us alone in peace and simply relocate to Mars using ill-gotten lucre.
Well, it’s safe to say that Russia already outmatches the U.S. in ICBM technology and raw material , including plutonium and uranium(which it has vast amounts and access to). The sheer size and strategic global location of Russia is in Russia’s benefit. The American people should go ape-shit once they realize how much an arms race would cost them, but don’t hold your breath, they are sleepwalking right over the cliff. What will the ruling elites of the U.S.(Jews) finally resort to when they realize Russia will not abandon China and Iran whom are her allies and a part of Eurasia. Her neighbors?
We are witnessing the dying throes of an empire that’s losing it’s status rapidly.
Trump is issuing empty threats, even the ones against Iran and China. The U.S. is in no position to engage any of the two. The Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Armed Forces have already told him that the U.S. Military cannot field an army until at least 2022. Militarily, the U.S. has exhausted itself and needs time to replenish the ranks and modernize equipment. Afghanistan, Iraq and proxy fronts have taken their toll. The Chinese and Iranian’s know this.
Perhaps the US elections were really a psyop after all. That, or this man had the fear of Moloch put into him by the bankster (((elites))).