{"id":82499,"date":"2020-04-21T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T09:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/04\/21\/now-isnt-the-time-to-push-for-nuclear-modernization\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:17:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:17:58","slug":"now-isnt-the-time-to-push-for-nuclear-modernization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/opinion\/commentary\/2020\/04\/21\/now-isnt-the-time-to-push-for-nuclear-modernization\/","title":{"rendered":"Now isn\u2019t the time to push for nuclear modernization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If the new coronavirus pandemic has taught us one thing, it is that we need to rethink what we need to do to keep America safe. That\u2019s why Secretary of Defense Mark Esper\u2019s recent tweet<\/a> calling modernization of U.S. nuclear forces a \u201ctop priority … to protect the American people and our allies\u201d seemed so tone deaf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID-19 has already killed<\/a> more Americans than died<\/a> in the 9\/11 attacks<\/a> and the Iraq and Afghan wars combined, with projections of many more to come. The pandemic underscores the need for a systematic, sustainable, long-term investment in public health resources, from protective equipment<\/a>, to ventilators and hospital beds, to research and planning resources needed to deal with future outbreaks of disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Kori Schake, the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, has noted<\/a>: \u201cWe\u2019re going to see enormous downward pressure on defense spending because of other urgent American national needs like health care.\u201d And that\u2019s as it should be, given the relative dangers posed by outbreaks of disease and climate change relative to traditional military challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\t