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class nuclear missile-firing submarines (SSBN) with their Trident missiles. (Trident – gotta hand it to the Navy.) Just one submarine can carry 20 Trident II missiles, each with up to eight warheads, each warhead being roughly equivalent to six Hiroshima bombs. Each of these submarines carries an arsenal roughly equivalent to a thousand Hiroshima bombs. And the US has fourteen of them.

Instead of the Ohio-class of submarines, shouldn’t they be called the Armageddon-class? Or the Apocalypse-class? The Genocide-class?

With a bit more honesty, perhaps it wouldn’t be so easy to sell these horrific weapons to Congress and the American people. Then again, when the bottom line is higher budgets for the Pentagon and more jobs for Congressional districts, I guess America will buy almost anything. Even Holocaust missiles and Armageddon submarines. And for upwards of $20-trillion over the next 30 years as well.

If they don’t bust the budget, perhaps they’ll destroy the world. CT

William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF). He taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools and blogs at Bracing Views. He can be reached at wastore@pct.edu.

J ulia c onley