Apocalypse Soon?

[Brenda]

Last edited Fri Dec 5, 2025, 06:47 PM - Edit history (1)

I had no idea the Pentagon is using our money to the tune of nearly 2 trillion for nuclear war!

It’s been 20 years since I retired from the Air Force and 40 years since I first entered Cheyenne Mountain, America’s nuclear redoubt at the southern end of the Front Range that includes Pikes Peak in Colorado. So it was with some nostalgia that I read a recent memo from General Kenneth Wilsbach, the new Chief of Staff of the Air Force (CSAF). Along with the usual warrior talk, the CSAF vowed to “relentlessly advocate” for the new Sentinel ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) and the B-21 Raider stealth bomber. While the Air Force often speaks of “investing” in new nukes, this time the CSAF opted for “recapitalization,” a remarkably bloodless term for the creation of a whole new generation of genocidal thermonuclear weapons and their delivery systems.

So, here we are in a world in which the Pentagon plans to spend another $1.7 trillion (and no, that is not a typo!) “recapitalizing” its nuclear triad, and so in a world that is guaranteed to remain haunted forever by a possible future doomsday, the specter of nuclear mushroom clouds, and a true “end-times” catastrophe

Take it from this retired officer: you simply can’t trust the U.S. military with that sort of destructive power. Indeed, you can’t trust anyone with that much power at their fingertips. Consider nuclear weapons akin to the One Ring of Power in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Anyone who puts that ring on is inevitably twisted and corrupted.

I’ve felt something akin to that as well. When I wore a military uniform, I was in some sense a captive to power. The military both captures and captivates. There’s an allure of power in the military, since you have a lot of destructive power at your disposal.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/03/apocalypse-soon-3/

From the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/10/opinion/nuclear-weapons-us-price.html

[TheProle]

1. 2 Trillion

~$6000 for every man, woman, child in the country

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Well, that power has been around for a while, and we are still here, yeah, sure there's been some things that have

happened over the past several decades or more, but still, no nukes since Japan.

My only worry is tRUMP and him getting a thought in his brain to use one or more of these weapons, w/o really a serious reason too, just someone who's insulted his fragile ego.

[Brenda]

3. So you didn't read any more of the article

And made a blithe statement - sure, yeah, no nuclear war since Japan.

DU has become totally non serious.

[SWBTATTReg]

4. Yeah, you are kind of rude to mock my response. Really classy.

[Brenda]

5. We're talking about trillions of dollars for US nukes

And you're calling me rude and mocking and classless?

[Brenda]

6. Here's the nytimes link

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/10/opinion/nuclear-weapons-us-price.html

[OC375]

7. World's Getting More Dangerous Every Day

No one ever wants to pay maintenance, growth and obsolescence.

[Brenda]

8. Lie.

Lie and um, Lie.

The world is not more dangerous for the USA to develop more nuclear weapons.

[jfz9580m]

10. Good article - I like his other writing as well

Just showed up on Salon:
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/07/i-worked-up-close-with-thermonuclear-weapons-building-new-ones-is-insane/

1.2 Trillion is pretty obscene.


His other op-eds are pretty decent as well:

https://www.salon.com/2023/10/15/beyond-the-rights-woke-slurs-what-would-a-progressive-us-military-really-look-like_partner/

It gets to the heart of my complaints about a lot of what has gone wrong when performative displays replace real progress.