Washington moving forward on cutting nuclear weapons

At a time when the world is gripped by terror, Washington is reportedly considering to slash the number of its nuclear weapons, the Associated Press reported. The move, which intends to cut the U.S. nuclear weapons to between 1,000 and 1,100, reflects new thoughts on the function of nuclear weapons in the current age.

According to the report, the thoughts to cut nuclear weapons reinforce President Obama’s short run idea of slashing the country’s nuclear weapons without weakening national security. In the long run the action will lead to elimination of Washington’s nuclear arsenal, officials said.

The Obama Administration has not yet publically stated the plan for cutting the number of nuclear arsenal. It is pertinent to mention here that the United States and Russia recently signed an accord, dubbed as “New Start”, which makes it compulsory for both nations to cut the number of their nuclear arsenal to less than 1550 by 2018. Abiding by the accord, Russia reduced its nuclear weapons total to 1,492 and the United States dropped to 1,737.

According to the AP report, “Obama has been considering a range of options for additional cuts, including a low-end range that would leave between 300 and 400 warheads. Several current and former officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said there appeared to be a consensus building around the more modest reduction to 1,000 to 1,100 deployed strategic warheads.”

Relevant authorities have said that a decision on the issue is expected this month, but some officials expressed fear that it may be hit by delay as a result of increased Republican criticism of the Obama Administration’s actions.

Political pundits believe that any action to cut nuclear weapons are prone to strong resistance from Republicans in Congress, who believe President Obama underrates the significance of a steady nuclear deterrence, although the cuts almost certainly would save tens of billions of dollars.

Meanwhile proponents of the plan say that nuclear weapons dispense a very narrow reason, and that more nuclear weapons weaken the standing of demands that Iran and several other countries give up obtaining their own.

Opponents of the plan believe that by cutting the number of its nuclear arsenal, the United States would lose its leading position in the nuclear stadium when rival nations such as Iran and North Korea are following their own nuclear goals.