NEW YORK TIMES URGES ADMIN. TO SCRAP ‘NONSENSICAL’ B61 REFURBISHMENT

The Obama Administration’s decision to refurbish about 400 B61 nuclear bombs is a “nonsensical decision” that is at odds with the President’s vision for a world free of nuclear weapons, the New York Times suggested in a May 26 editorial that advocated that the Administration scrap the $10 billion program. “In a seminal speech in Prague in 2009 and a strategy review in 2010, Mr. Obama advocated the long-term goal of a world without nuclear arms and promised to reduce America’s reliance on them,” the Times wrote. “He also promised not to field a new and improved warhead. But the B61 upgrade would significantly increase America’s tactical nuclear capability and send the wrong signal while Mr. Obama is trying to draw Russia into a new round of nuclear reduction talks that are supposedly aimed at cutting tactical, as well as strategic, arsenals.”

The Times suggested that financial pressure facing the nation should not force the Administration to comply with the 2010 bargain it made during debate on the New START Treaty to modernize the nation’s nuclear stockpile and weapons complex. “It is a mystery why he would feel bound by this commitment at a time when limited dollars should be directed toward real needs, and when Republicans have obstructed him at every turn on those needs,” the Times wrote.