Morning Joe: U.S. and Russia Seek Extensive Nuclear Reductions

Stories we're following today:

U.S. and Russia Seek More Extensive Weapons Cuts - Wall Street Journal [link]

• The U.S. and Russia are expected to launch new talks aimed at reducing the number of strategic and other nuclear weapons on both sides, a senior Obama administration official said Tuesday, in an ambitious effort that could help ease bilateral tensions over other issues as well.
• Note on Numbers:
  • The above article says that Russia is left with "roughly 1,500 working warheads".
  • As estimated by Robert Norris and Hans Kristensen - both Ploughshares Grantees - in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Russia's nuclear arsenal is estimated to have:
    • 2,787 deployed strategic weapons
    • ~2,050 nonstrategic weapons
    • ~8,150 intact warheads in reserve or awaiting dismantlement
    • Total: ~13,000 warheads.

Nuclear Misinformation - Nukes of Hazard [link]

• Yesterday Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Richard Perle published an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal castigating President Obama for pursuing policies that will purportedly lead to the destruction of the U.S. nuclear deterrent. Below is my attempt at a point-by-point rebuttal, with my responses in italics.
• Kyl and Perle do not bother to explain how such an arsenal is relevant to combating the threat posed by nuclear terrorism, two words which are conspicuously absent from their piece... Yet the U.S. nuclear stockpile, which serves as a deterrent against state use of nuclear weapons, is irrelevant to the threat of terrorists using nuclear weapons. There is no terrorist “homeland” to threaten with an overwhelming response. Today, more nuclear weapons mean more opportunities for accidents or theft.

"Global Zero" Backers Propose U.S.-Russian Nuclear Cuts to 1,000 by 2018 - Global Security Newswire [link]

• Proponents of a plan to rid the world of nuclear weapons proposed yesterday that Russia and the United States agree to an interim step in which they each cut their arsenals to 1,000 strategic warheads by 2018.

FINALLY. . .Kurt Campbell Sworn in to Deal with Asia - The Washington Note[link]

• "Senator Sam Brownback [R-KS] had a hold on Campbell for a very long time -- and I was working on a blog post preparing to blast the Kansas Senator for his irresponsibility in holding up this nomination and for allowing a simmering cauldron on the Korean Peninsula to near dangerous levels without an Asst Secretary of State in place to focus attention on what was going on there. Fortunately, I no longer need to do this..."

Second Thoughts on North Korea’s Inscrutable Ship - Sanger in the New York Times[link]

• Pentagon officials are clearly not eager to confront the Kang Nam 1. The intelligence about what is on board is typically murky. Some say they suspect small arms, which are banned by the United Nations resolution but hardly a major threat. Members of Mr. Obama’s team who served in the Clinton administration remember past embarrassments, including the interception of a Chinese ship suspected of carrying chemical precursors in the early 1990s. When the ship was finally cornered, the cargo turned out to be benign.

A View from the Dark Side

How to Stop North Korea's Weapons Proliferation - Gordon Chang in the Wall Street Journal [link]

• Furthermore, there has never been a peace treaty formally ending the Korean War. This means the U.S., a combatant in the conflict, as leader of the U.N. Command, is free to use force against Pyongyang...
• Because the Navy has the right to torpedo the vessel, which proudly flies the flag of another combatant in the war, it of course has the right to board her.