US nuclear arsenal threatens whole world: Analyst
The target list of US nuclear weapons from the 1950s is “blood-curdling” as it shows the terrifying behind the scenes of US foreign policy, says an American political commentator.
The United States has released an extensive list of potential targets for its nuclear bombs in case of a military confrontation with the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Dubbed “Atomic Weapons Requirements Study for 1959,” the list included targets in Eastern Europe and China and was essentially an expansive spreadsheet put together by the Strategic Air Command in 1956, designating targets that could and should be hit in a potential war three years later, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
The targets for “systematic destruction,” referred to as “designated ground zeros” or simply DGZs, were mostly industrial facilities and government centers. However, US military officials had chosen a specific target in every city, calling it “Population.”
“Even though it is old, it shows what the thinking was and basically still is among circles of power in the United States military and foreign policy establishment,” Daniel Patrick Welch told Press TV on Wednesday.
“Saving specific bombs designed only for a population, and this is basically a roadmap for the complete annihilation of the world and it shows how sociopathic this mindset is,” he added.
The political analyst went on to say that unlike the Soviet Union that collapsed in 1990s, the Cold War mentality of a nuclear war still thrives in the US and “has been upgraded.”
Welch described the 7,100-strong US nuclear warhead arsenal as a “tremendous threat to the whole world” because of Washington’s refusal “to have a crystal-clear no-first-use policy.”
“The US is the only country to have used nuclear weapons,” he noted.
The only atomic bombings in world history were carried out by the US in 1945 and destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War, killing more than 200,000 people.
Welch called for a strong reaction to America’s nuclear policies by the international community before such tragedies are repeated.
The US has announced that it is planning to upgrade its aging nuclear arsenal to the tune of $1 trillion over the next 30 years.
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