Meet the budget busting B61

Meet the budget busting B61 An Unaffordable Bomb With The U.S. is about to buy a nuclear bomb that costs more than twice its weight in solid gold -to fulfill a Cold War mission that no longer exists. An Imaginary Mission Each of the 700 lb. bombs would cost $28.9 million dollars. One B61 vs 700 Ibs. of gold $28.9 Million Why spend so much? What is it for? $12.4 Million B61 Bomb 700 Ibs. of Solid Gold In the 1960s, the U.S. based B61 hen bombs and thousands of other tactical nuclear weapons in Europe to deter the Soviets. If POCKES the Red Army invaded Western Europe, NATO was to use nuclear weapons in the battlefield in the opening moves of World War III. Now The Cold War ended. The Soviet Union collapsed. President George H.W. Bush unilaterally removed such bombs by the thou- sands in 1992. President George W. Bush removed several hundred more. Two hundred B61 bombs remain in Europe today. The Pentagon wants to upgrade the last remaining bombs – making them more accurate and more usable. But where would the U.S. use these bombs? The Soviet Union is no more. Nobody wants nuclear war in Europe. In any case, the planes couldn't reach most Russian targets without getting fuel along the way. Volkel AFB O Büchel AFB Ramstein AFB Is there a military mission performed by [B61 tactical nuclear weapons] that cannot be performed by either U.S. strategic forces or U.S. conventional forces? A: No. Gen. James Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - Transcript from a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations.. April 8, 2010. Why are the bombs still there? NATO allies are divided about whether to keep the nuclear bombs, with countries like Germany and the Netherlands openly discussing removing the bombs from their soil. However, a small minority of NATO allies cling to the bombs as a political symbol of America's commitment to their security. So the U.S. sticks to the status quo - keeping nuclear bombs in Europe for their perceived political value within NATO. B61 Cost: U.S. vs NATO $11,550,000,000 for them, night?" U.S. $0 Iguess not. NATO The B61 bomb program costs more than 8 out of 10 NATO allies' yearly military budgets. Yearly military spending in millions of dollars 12500 25000 37500 50000 62500 UK France Germany Italy Canada Turkey B61-12 Bomb Spain Netherlands "The Cold War is long Poland over, and no American Norway Greece military commander can Belgium Denmark conceive of their ever Portugal Czech Rep. being used. Even so, Romania President Obama has put Hungary $537 million in his 2014 Slovakia Croatia budget proposal to Bulgaria Slovenia upgrade these bombs." Estonia Lithuania - The New York Times, May 26, 2013 Luxembourg Latvia Albania Iceland What else XXX IXX can $11.6 billion buy? IXXX IXX An aircraft carrier: $11.3 Billion The Burj Khalifa (world's tallest building) 7 times: $11.4 Billion Relieve student debt for half a million people. OR Operate the American Red Cross for more than 3 years. What could it do for our troops and security? Not cut pay raises for the troops as proposed. ($540 million) And Fully fund program to keep vulnerable nuclear materials away from terrorists. ($503 million) The U.S. does not need and cannot afford this nuclear budget buster. Tell us on Facebook and Twitter what you'd rather buy with $11.6 billion. #SolidGoldNuke PLOUGHSHARES FUND ploughshares.org @ plough_shares #SolidGoldNuke