Sunday, October 21, 2018

Trump Scuttling Nuclear Arms Control Treaty




Here's some real global warming on the horizon, courtesy of nitwit narcissist Donald "Rump" Trump (our emphasis throughout):
Donald Trump has confirmed the US will leave an arms control treaty with Russia dating from the cold war that has kept nuclear missiles out of Europe for three decades. 
“We’ll have to develop those weapons,” the president told reporters in Nevada after a rally. “We’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out.” 
Trump was referring to the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF), which banned ground-launch nuclear missiles with ranges from 500km to 5,500km. Signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, it led to nearly 2,700 short- and medium-range missiles being eliminated, and an end to a dangerous standoff between US Pershing and cruise missiles and Soviet SS-20 missiles in Europe. 
Dismantling a significant legacy of St. Ronnie of Hollywood!?  We know Rump doesn't have the brainpower to have come up with this by himself.  Likely, he was convinced that this was a smart negotiating tactic that a dealmaking genius like him could pull off (it's, of course, boneheaded).  So, what evil, dangerous minion might have been involved in leading asshat Rump into this horrendously destabilizing action?
The Guardian reported on Friday that Trump’s third national security adviser, John Bolton, a longstanding opponent of arms control treaties, was pushing for US withdrawal. 
Should have guessed it was the mustachioed maniac.  He has zero interest in negotiating; he's a destroyer.

But, wouldn't this be bad news for the Russians?
Jeffrey Lewis, the director of the East Asia nonproliferation program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, said: “This is a colossal mistake. Russia gets to violate the treaty and Trump takes the blame. 
I doubt very much that the US will deploy much that would have been prohibited by the treaty. Russia, though, will go gangbusters.
So, to review, Rump pulls us out of a nuclear arms control treaty that has helped keep the peace for 30 years, that was signed by St. Ronnie, that the United States will be blamed for scuttling, and that will allow Russia full rein to bolster its intermediate range nuclear weapons to threaten Europe.  See who the "winner" is here?

Happy Sunday!