This is an Argentum Post News Flash Digest [ APNFD Nr. 55 ] which adds an addendum to the most recent Argentum Post article dated November 16, 2017 and titled Chris Hedges Documents the Trump Fascist (Pseudo)Christian-Right Kleptomaniac Plutocratic Elite Assault on Our Treasury

In said Argentum Post article’s relevant paragraph, this writer of the Argentum Post makes the following statement :

“ A simple analysis of the world military budgets documents in hard figures the reality that the U.S. spends more in its wasteful aggression than the rest of the world combined – and that BTW, now includes the billions to be spent of upgrading our nuclear weapons which is an insanity which has the potential to destroy life on this planet even if simply by an act of human error.” (bolded italicized emphasis added).

On the following day, i.e. October November 17, 2017, the former Secretary of Defense from 1994 to 1997, namely William J. Perry, in an article published by  The Washington Post  titled  “ We Can Cut Back Our Nuclear Arsenal “ made the following relevant statements on this subject (inter alia) ;

“ The United States plans to spend $ 1.7 trillion over the next three decades to replace its nuclear arsenal.   This is a lot of money, more annually than the country spends on the entire State Department ”

“ During the Cold War, the greater danger to the United States was a ‘bolt from the blue’ from the Soviet Union – a massive surprise nuclear attack”… “Thankfully those days are over”

“ Today the greatest danger is not a Russia bolt but a U.S. blunder ”

“ We had three false alarms during the Cold War, and on one of those, we narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe “.

“ It is time to step back and take a fresh look.  The United States does not need to arm its bombers with a new generation of nuclear armed cruise missiles ”

“ We believe, too, that our deterrent systems could help avoid a new arms race with Russia that neither side should want “.

Most noteworthy are the two following statements :

“ Our nation can spend much less and still be safe, in fact, safer”

“ This may sound counterintuitive, but if we scale back plans to replace the nuclear arsenal, we will actually improve our security.  And we will save hundreds of billions of dollars…It is time to take a hard look at the arsenal and replace the weapons we need  for today’s threats – and forgo the rest. ”

Finally the following statement is interesting :

“We support a strong U.S. nuclear deterrent as long as nuclear weapons are held by other nations .”

The reason this statement is interesting and educational is that it teaches that the NPT treaty’s Section VI clearly stipulates the following provision  which has been woefully ignored and thereby violated since its signing by all members of said treaty as well as those which refused to sing on to this treaty, namely  Israel which occupies Palestine in brazen violation of international law,  Pakistan, and India.

The following is the Article VI stipulation of the NPT treaty :