In this mailing: Peter Huessy: Hiding Unilateral Disarmament Objectives Lawrence A. Franklin: Encircling Baghdad: The Country that Became a City-State Message for Veterans Day / Remembrance Day Hiding Unilateral Disarmament Objectives by Peter Huessy  •  November 11, 2014 at 5:00 am What the Ploughshares Fund is actually doing with its proposed budget cuts, it appears, is trying to camouflage the objectives of permanently disarming America of key parts of its nuclear capability. Describing the U.S. nuclear force structure as a "Cold War relic" says nothing about whether the force is still needed. Oddly, the nuclear cuts being proposed do not require any reciprocal Russian reductions. Cutting $20 billion a year from the current U.S. nuclear deterrent would require killing all modernization, plus all the work of extending the life of nuclear warheads. In 20 years, the U.S. would be left with no effective nuclear deterrent, while China, Russia and North Korea are modernizing their nuclear deterrents across the board. "You have to invent a 'Dragon' to slay." — U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, explaining how to kill defense programs. In Washington, a delay often has the same impact as killing a program. The U.S. nuclear "triad" consists of nuclear warheads mounted on platforms based at sea, in the air and on land. It has been 33 years since the U.S. last embarked on a nuclear modernization program. Both the Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of Defense have called for a debate over what the future costs of the nuclear deterrent enterprise should be and what investment is needed to keep the peace and prevent nuclear war. At issue is whether the United States can afford to spend 4% of its defense budget and 0.6% of all federal spending to modernize its nuclear deterrent over the next decade and beyond. Two widely divergent views are emerging. The first is that a plan is necessary to modernize the U.S. nuclear capability to keep it a robust and credible deterrent in the face of advances currently being made by China and Russia and North Korea in their nuclear programs Continue Reading Article Encircling Baghdad: The Country that Became a City-State by Lawrence A. Franklin  •  November 11, 2014 at 4:00 am The goal of the Islamic State might be to create enough chaos in the capital city of Baghdad to cause a mass exodus of its Shia population southward, this ceding Baghdad to the Sunnis by default. Islamic State fighters receive a pre-battle briefing and sermon before their attack on Samarra, 125km north of Baghdad. Is it still possible to salvage if not Iraq, at least Baghdad? Sunni Muslim troops, led by ISIS (now the so-called Islamic State, or IS) and fighting against the Iraqi government, have virtually surrounded Baghdad. Iraq's largest province, al-Anbar, is almost totally occupied by anti-regime forces. Only a portion of Fallujah remains outside of occupation by the IS-led forces. After the IS took over the city of Hit, regular Iraqi units fell back into a defensive posture at al-Asad, the largest military facility in Anbar. Several key population centers to the north and northeast have also fallen, and there is still heavy fighting around the oil refineries of the northern city of Baiji. Continue Reading Article Message for Veterans Day / Remembrance Day November 11, 2014 at 3:00 am Gatestone Institute wishes the courageous men and women of America's and the Free World's armed forces, who have given everything -- and who continue to give everything -- so that the rest of us may sleep safely in our beds at night. We are are infinitely indebted to you and infinitely grateful.

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