Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, at the podium, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, left, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, right, conduct a press conference to discuss the Nuclear Posture Review at the Pentagon, April 6, 2010. DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeleyObama's Mixed Message: Ban Nukes, Fund Modernized Weapons -- Popular Mechanics
President Barack Obama has pledged to work toward a nuclear-weapon-free world. So why is his defense budget filled with money to modernize the things that carry them?
When the Norwegian Nobel Committee nominated U.S. president Barack Obama for its Peace Prize, they said the committee “attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons." They might be surprised to see some of the lesser-known details of his defense budget—which requests $7 billion, up $624 million from 2010, in funding for weapons research by the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. For all the president's talk this week about limiting the scope of America's use of its nuclear weapons, his budgetary actions make it clear that any reduction in the U.S. stockpile will go hand-in-hand with modernization.
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