Ex-Pentagon Analyst: US INF Ultimatum Part of Plan to Boost Nuke Arms Industry

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Trump administration’s decision to suspend its obligations under the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty is designed to open the way for a new tidal wave of spending to satiate the US military-industrial complex, former Defense Department analyst Chuck Spinney told Sputnik.
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"The [US] Military-Industrial —Congressional Complex (MICC) [is] driving the nuclear arms race that is now locking the world into a new Cold War while lowering the threshold for a hot nuclear war," Spinney said.

US leaders want to use the withdrawal from the INF to launch even more nuclear weapons armament programs, Spinney suggested.

Putin: Russia Opposes Destruction of INF Treaty, But Will React in Proper Manner
"What is missing from this reincarnation of past Strangelovian madness? In terms of offensive capabilities, two stand out: A new ground launched cruise missile (GLCM) and a nuclear follow-on to the Pershing II medium range ballistic missile — precisely the weapons banned by the INF treaty," Spinney said.

However this massive nuclear modernization program was setting in motion a money stream that would continue through 2060 or perhaps even 2080, Spinney warned.

"Jobs and money will be flooding into over 400 of congressional districts as the political engineers in the MICC target the political vulnerabilities of the system of checks and balances in the United States and those of our allies with a torrent of contracts and subcontracts," he said.

READ MORE: NATO Manipulates Facts to Disguise US Withdrawal From INF — Kremlin

From the Russian perspective, Spinney added, the United States is sharpening its nuclear sword while strengthening is nuclear shield, which is a formula for war-fighting.

US policymakers believed they could increase the military options for fighting and winning a nuclear war by increasing the precision of their capabilities to execute and control the escalation of limited nuclear strikes, Spinney explained.

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Such thinking, he added, is a return to the discredited nuclear war-fighting theories of the 1970s.

"Only this time we are sleepwalking into the same old mad theory of nuclear war-fighting without a major strategy debate," he concluded.

The INF Treaty was signed by the Soviet Union and the United States in 1987, and prohibited either country from possessing, producing or testing ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with a range of between 300 to 3,300 miles.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said if the United States develops weapons currently banned by the INF, Moscow would follow suit. The State Department on Tuesday said US INF obligations will be suspended in 60 days unless Russia comes into compliance. Putin said the United States has still provided zero evidence to support allegations of noncompliance.

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