Trim Nuclear Fat from the Pentagon Budget | Benjamin H. Friedman and Christopher Preble | Cato Institute: Commentary

Trim Nuclear Fat from the Pentagon Budget | Benjamin H. Friedman and Christopher Preble | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Even by the most merciless arithmetic, this triple threat is unnecessary. Congress should take the advice of experts like former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff James Cartwright and decommission either the bomber or ICBM leg while cutting the forces in the remaining two legs, leaving a deployed warhead total under 500."

"Monumental leaps in our ability to precisely aim conventional and nuclear weapons have greatly reduced the number and size of the weapons we need to threaten enemies. And the U.S. military's vast advantage over all rivals makes it even less plausible that we will ever be desperate enough to resort to a nuclear strike."

"The peace among rich states increasingly seems to depend on factors beyond mutual terror. Only poor, threatened states now develop nuclear weapons for security."