BlackFive

"Nuclear stockpile numbers are closely guarded secrets in most states that possess them, but private nuclear policy experts say no countries other than the U.S. and Russia are thought to have more than 300. The Federation of American Scientists estimates that France has about 300, China about 240, Britain about 225, and Israel, India and Pakistan roughly 100 each." - Robert Burns, AP

We've been talking about the efforts of the Obama administration to unilaterally disarm our nuclear arsenal on back channel for awhile now. 

First, military blogger Neptunus Lex writes that this can't be possibily be true:

...Can it?

I mean, it’s one thing to baseline the overall Pentagon budget based on budget-driven numbers whose fiscal rigor begins with “less for defense is always better” rather than on a analytic review of national security requirements – not a good thing, mind – but it’s something else entirely when a community organizer sitting president tells the country’s strategic defense apparatus to build down our nuclear stockpile based on nothing but round numbers even as proliferation grows elsewhere...

Read the whole post here.

In other words, rather than taking any kind of cue from the Pentagon, the Obama Administration is telling the DoD how to set their level of nuclear capability - strike, counter-strike, and deterrent.  

The AP's Robert Burns wrote this piece about the reduction issue:

....Even small proposed cuts are likely to draw heavy criticism from Republicans who have argued that a smaller nuclear force would weaken the U.S. at a time when Russia, China and others are strengthening their nuclear capabilities. They also argue that shrinking the American arsenal would undermine the credibility of the nuclear "umbrella" that the United States provides for allies such as Japan, South Korea and Turkey, who might otherwise build their own nuclear forces.

The administration last year began considering a range of possible future reductions below the levels agreed in the New START treaty with Russia that took effect one year ago.
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The U.S. already is on track to reduce to 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads by 2018, as required by New START. As of last Sept. 1, the United States had 1,790 warheads and Russia had 1,566, according to treaty-mandated reports by each.
<...>
Those who favor additional cuts argue that nuclear weapons have no role in major security threats of the 21st century, such as terrorism. A 2010 nuclear policy review by the Pentagon said the U.S. nuclear arsenal also is "poorly suited" to deal with challenges posed by "unfriendly regimes seeking nuclear weapons" -- an apparent reference to Iran.

It's unclear what calculus went into each of the three options now under consideration at the White House...

Read the whole article at BusinessWeek.

President Obama said this in 2009.

In April, President Obama told a crowd of 20,000 in Prague that the U.S. had a "moral responsibility" to take the lead in ridding the world of nuclear weapons. He also noted in that speech, "Today, the Cold War has disappeared but thousands of those weapons have not. In a strange turn of history, the threat of global nuclear war has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up."

By giving up our own defenses, we are securing the world against nuclear proliferation?!  How exactly does that work?  The Iranians will suddenly stop trying to produce a bomb?  And what about South Korea and Japan?  Are they expected to not seek nuclear weapons for defense now that the US cannot defend them?!  Saudi Arabia wants nukes.  As well as a host of other players.

Unilateral disarmament does not seem wise in the face of build ups by ALL of our adversaries.  All. Of. Our. Adversaries.

And as for China, very recently, we thought they had only a few dozen nuclear weapons...until a recent earthquake exposed many many more.  They have far more than 240.

I agree reduction of the arsenal is fine as long as other measures are put into place...but right now the writing on the wall shows that is NOT THE CASE with a reduction of the Army, reduction and refocus of the Marine Corps, a gutting of the Navy, and reduction of the USAF.  So exactly how exactly are you going to provide the same or better capabilities to deter or defend the United States of America?

The short answer:  You can't.

Longer Answer:  The problem is that the only country that can be disarmed by President Obama is ours. Period.