The best hope for halting this ruinous nuclear arms race is the UN treaty, which has been ratified by 68 nations.  Most Americans (including members of Congress) still need to learn about this treaty.  Young people should be educated about the need for universal human security instead of national security based on ethnic and racial prejudices.  There is only one human race and one planet we need to preserve.

The Explosive Military Budget

by Jay Kvale /  WAMM Newsletter Vol. 40  No.6  Winter 2023

The Nuclear Posture Review

Biden’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), released at the end of October, integrates nuclear with conventional forces in new ways. [1] It alsomaintains the usual triad: missiles, bombers, submarines,[2] and Us vs. Them fear-based adversarial system of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) based on deterrence which has kept the world in nuclear peril for decades.

But the biggest disappointment is the rejection of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. [3] After giving an eloquent speech in Prague in 2009 on the goal of working toward a world without nuclear weapons, in 2011 Obama approved the $1 trillion nuclear modernization. This is now approaching a cost of $2 trillion (over a 30-year period).  Some of the costly items include 12 new Trident subs at $10 billion each, 100 new B-21 bombers at $560 million each, and 400 new Sentinel Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) at $100 billion that replace the 50-year-old Minuteman missiles. [4]

The best hope for halting this ruinous nuclear arms race is the UN treaty, which has been ratified by 68 nations.  Most Americans (including members of Congress) still need to learn about this treaty.  Young people should be educated about the need for universal human security instead of national security based on ethnic and racial prejudices.  There is only one human race and one planet we need to preserve.

The Military Budget

Nuclear modernization is just part of the 2023 military budget that is being finalized now. The total budget, specified by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), is expected to reach a record $847 to $858 billion.

While these excessive military expenditures are supposed to keep us safe, this comes at a time when the National Debt has reached $31 Trillion, 80 million Americans live at or below the poverty line.

When the House and Senate Armed Services Committees added $45 billion more for wars and weapons – more than Biden had asked for – historian William Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel, lamented that “it’s a whopping sum of money that would likely end homelessness if it was invested in America.”[5]William Hartung, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, in a rundown of military and related costs, commented in his article “Fueling the Warfare State”:

…the Pentagon is just one element in an ever more costly American national security state. Adding other military, intelligence, and internal-security expenditures to the Pentagon’s budget brings the total upcoming ‘national security” budget to a mind-boggling $1.4 trillion. [6]

An aid package to Ukraine of about $38 billion is expected to be passed in the lame duck session before this Congress adjourns and the new one begins in January, adding to the approximately $66 billion already sent to Ukraine. [7]Roles are reversed as the Democrats are pushing this while some Republicans in the new Congress want to reduce it.

A grassroots effort, the Poor People’s Campaign, proposed a moral budget which would cut Pentagon spending nearly in half. [8]Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan in the House have proposed 10 percentcuts to the Pentagon, but even this hasn’t gained much support.

Millions of young people around the world have had significant success in opposing the oil companies and promoting renewable energy inthe last few years.  Let’s hope they can include reducing excessive militarism and disarmament of nuclear weapons[9] in theircampaign.

Jay Kvale is a member of the End War Committee of Women Against Military Madness.

END NOTES

[1]2022 Nuclear Posture Review. U.S. Nuclear Deterrence Strategy and Policy. tinyurl.com/4kzjctxr

[2]U.S. Nuclear Capabilities: Need for Nuclear Modernization. tinyurl.com/ykcvzb7u

[3]United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. tinyurl.com/2p962vj4

[4]U.S. Nuclear Modernization Programs. Arms Control Association. January 2022. tinyurl.com/mrykuh6s

[5]Astore, Bill. War Dividends: the Pentagon Budget Keeps Soaring Up, Up, and Away! Bracing Views. Bill Astore substack. December 1, 2022. bracingviews.substack.com

[6]Hartung, William. Fueling the Warfare State. Tom Dispatch. tomdispatch.com/fueling-the-warfare-state. July 7, 2022. tinyurl.com/ye6nupct

[7]White House asks Congress for $37 Billion for Ukraine. The Hill. Nov. 15, 2022. tinyurl.com/35kuftyu; Harris, Bryant. White House requests $38 billion more in Ukraine aid. DefenseNews. November 15, 2022. tinyurl.com/5czpc4tc (estimates differ slightly in different sources)

[8]ThePoor People’s Moral Budget. Everybody Has a Right to Live. Poor People’s Campaign. June 15, 2020.

[9]Ibid 3

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