Russia-US arms race threatens nuclear conflict: ex-Pentagon chief

The “irrational” nuclear race between the United States and Russia has put the whole world on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe, says former US Defense Secretary William Perry.

In a newly published memoir, My Journey at the Nuclear Brink, the former Pentagon chief slams President Barack Obama’s decision to develop a new generation of cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear payloads, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

According to Perry, the move is part of an “irrational” race between Moscow and Washington to modernize their aging arsenal of atomic weapons.

"I see an imperative to stop this damn nuclear race before it gets underway again, not just for the cost but for the danger it puts all of us in," he says.

Perry recounts a false alarm during his tenure in mid-1950s that threatened a “nuclear holocaust,” where 200 hundred Soviet Union nuclear missiles were intercepted on their way to obliterate US cities.

"It was, of course, a false alarm," Perry says, but it was one of many experiences throughout the Cold War and beyond that he said have given him a "unique and chilling vantage point from which to conclude that nuclear weapons no longer provide for our security — they now endanger it."

The 88-year-old military veteran, who played a central role in developing and modernizing US nuclear forces throughout the Cold War, argues that land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are no longer relevant and should be scrapped from the US military’s inventory.

"I don't think it's going to happen, but I think it should happen. They're not needed" to deter nuclear aggression, he says.

Perry suggests that instead, the US military can rely on the other two “legs” of its nuclear force, namely bomber aircraft and submarine-based missiles.

In a recent interview, Perry doubled down on his warnings of an imminent conflict, saying that the current status quo in world affairs ups the risk of a nuclear conflict.

"We are facing nuclear dangers today that are in fact more likely to erupt into a nuclear conflict than during the Cold War," Perry said.

The Arms Control Association estimates that currently Washington is in possession of 7,100 nuclear weapons. According to official reports, an upgrade of the arsenal will be carried out to the tune of $1 trillion over the next 30 years.

A nuclear nightmare in Washington

In the preface of his memoir, Perry details a nuclear terror scenario and describes it as “my nuclear nightmare, born of long and deep experience.”

The former mathematician lays down a scenario where a small group of terrorists create a primitive nuclear bomb and fly it to an airport in Washington, undetected. The bomb is then detonated somewhere between the US Capitol and the White House, immediately killing 80,000 people including the president. The media will then report a message claiming that five more bombs are hidden in five different American cities, and one will be set off each week.

"The danger of a nuclear bomb being detonated in one of our cities is all too real," Perry writes. "And yet, while this catastrophe would result in a hundred times the casualties of 9/11, it is only dimly perceived by the public and not well understood."

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