Catchy Phrase! “Roll of the Dice”- Gamble. Risky Business.Saw a number of news articles covering the Washington based Stimson Center’s warning. Additional links: here, there, and everywhere I would expect this new mind virus to get a whole lot of play this week coming- Perhaps starting today? The first thought that popped into my mind was Gulf War 2- George Bush Jr- Smoking gun/ mushroom cloud- Recall that?Of course there was no smoking gun. In the form of a mushroom cloud or otherwise? Period. Bush's claim pushed up the fear levels and enabled the US to sell their war of choice.
The US can easily remove these from Incirlik. Perhaps they have already? According to Stimson these nukes are useless for war making? However their presence at Incirlik, or at least the belief in their presence at Incirlik, might be very useful from a spread terror, justify intervention, manage your perception and keep you in fear perspective?The nukes don't have to be there, at Incirlik, you merely need to believe they are present to become inculcated with the fearStimson:
“The continued presence of dozens of U.S. nuclear weapons at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey raises serious risks of their seizure by terrorists and other hostile forces, a new report by the nonpartisan Stimson Center finds. The report titled B61 Life Extension Program: Costs and Policy Considerations, found that it was an “unanswerable question,” whether the U.S. could have maintained control of the approximately 50 B61 nuclear weapons based at Incirlik during a protracted civil conflict in Turkey.
Hasn't the media been warning us about how it is Turkey is going to have a protracted civil conflict? Why yes, yes, they have. Example: WaPo :The growing risk of civil war in Turkey
"During the failed July 15 coup attempt, power to Incirlik Air Base was cut off and the Turkish government prohibited U.S. aircraft from flying in or out. Eventually, the Incirlik base commander was arrested and implicated in the coup plot. The report’s findings come exactly one month after the failed coup attempt and on the heels of a milestone earlier this month authorizing the production and engineering phase of the B61 Life Extension Program.
From a security point of view, it’s a roll of the dice to continue to have approximately 50 of America’s nuclear weapons stationed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, just 70 miles from the Syrian border,” said report co-author Laicie Heeley, a fellow with the Budgeting for Foreign Affairs and Defense program at the Stimson Center. “These weapons have zero utility on the European battlefield and today are more of a liability than asset to our NATO allies.”The United States first deployed tac-tical nuclear bombs in Europe during the Cold War in the late 1950s and early 1960s, to offset a buildup of Soviet tank armies deployed in Eastern Europe. Although most U.S. tactical weapons were withdrawn from Europe during the early 1990s, 180 of the tactical versions of the B61s remain at six bases in Europe — in Belgium, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Turkey.The report recommends the immediate removal of all B61 nuclear weapons from Europe and cancelling the procurement of B61s that would be stored in Europe“These bombs are ill-suited for modern warfare and incredibly costly,” said report co-author Barry Blechman, co-founder of the Stimson Center. “The smart move would be to remove these weapons from Europe and double down to strengthen conventional forces that actually protect our NATO allies.”___Founded in 1989, the Stimson Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank devoted to addressing transnational challenges in order to enhance global peace and economic prosperity.
Yet another NATO global military ‘think tank.Simple enough solution to this problem- Remove the weapons. If that has not already been done.Don't Miss!!!