Knowledgeable teams, including two members of Congress, use wargaming methods to deduce what might happen if China attacked Taiwan. They conclude that China would preemptively strike U.S. bases in Japan and Guam, eventually attack Hawaii and possibly San Diego, and the conflict would quickly escalat[...]
Posts Tagged ‘Nuclear Weapons’
April 15th, 2022 - 1:42 am § in Russia
Is nuclear war edging closer in Ukraine?
The threat of Russia using tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine “cannot be taken lightly,” but so far the CIA hasn’t seen “a lot of practical evidence reinforcing that concern,” CIA Director William Burns said Thursday, April 14, 2022 (read Reuters story here). Burns spe[...]
March 9th, 2022 - 10:53 pm § in Russia
Military expert says Russian troops aren’t trained for urban warfare
Putin’s plan “for a quick decapitation of Ukraine’s government and swift capitulation of its major cities” has gone off the rails. Now, his forces must contemplate urban combat, for which they’re “not prepared,” a military expert says (read story here). R[...]
Kids hiding under desks
Journalist Jill Filipovic (profile here), who frequently writes op-eds for CNN, says here, “Making the prospect of nuclear war … a part of the international calculus in potential conflict” — which is what Russia’s Putin did this week — is “a startling depart[...]
The world’s biggest stockpile of nuclear weapons is right under Seattle’s nose
At least, that’s what this article says: “Bangor, Washington, now houses the largest single nuclear weapons site in the world … holding roughly 25% of the United States’ 9,962 nuclear warheads.” Bangor, of course, is the home base of America’s ballistic-missile submar[...]
December 30th, 2021 - 10:28 pm § in Foreign Affairs
A. Q. Khan is dead. Good …
Abdul Qadeer Khan (photo, left), 85, died of Covid-19 on October 10, 2021. In this case, the virus did humanity a service. His passing was reported in the international press, but I didn’t notice at the time. That’s why I’m a couple months late with this story. A Pashtun born in Bh[...]
China’s hypersonic test “concerning”
China recently tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic delivery vehicle, although they deny it. Gen. Mark Milley, America’s top military officer, called the test “very concerning” (see story here). There are several things the Pentagon doesn’t like about these weapons in our adve[...]
October 18th, 2021 - 3:55 pm § in China, Foreign Affairs
The nuclear chess game
China asserts it merely tested a reusable spacecraft, but some people suspect it was a hypersonic nuclear delivery vehicle. US disarmament chief Robert Wood said, “We are very concerned by what China has been doing on the hypersonic front,” the Guardian reported on MOnday, October 18, 2021 (rea[...]
55 years since criticality: The Blue Flash
THE DEMON CORE AND THE STRANGE DEATH OF LOUIS SLOTIN Abstracted and edited from article MAY 21, 2016 THE NEW YORKER Alex Wellerstein is a historian of science and an assistant professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology, in New Jersey. He runs the blog Restricted Data. The blue flash was cle[...]
August 5th, 2020 - 11:32 pm § in Donald Trump, Foreign Affairs
Nuclear Taboo in the era of Trump
The Nuclear Taboo is the title of a book by Nina Tannenwald, an academic who specializes in “global security issues, efforts to control weapons of mass destruction, and human rights and the laws of war,” according to her profile here. She works at Brown University. Other people like her [...]