Trump and John Bolton are talking about doing it. I don't remember just what the Intermediate Range Forces agreement called for. There has been some vague talk on TV about restrictions on short range nuclear missiles. Consider the fact that long range missiles can hit short range targets. About all I can think of is that short range missiles are small enough to be road mobile, which makes it easier to disperse them and make it hard for counterforce strikes to take them out.
There hasn't been much talk about disarmament treaties in many years, actually since the Soviet Union collapsed in way back in 1989. And, what's in it for us? Do we, owners of the largest air force in the world, really want or need yet another nuclear missile system? Especially one that has to be based in the EU in order to hit the Russians? Do we believe that the Russians really want to nuke the EU? As opposed to taking it over piece by piece?
And, just what have the dead broke Russians been doing that we think is against the treaty?
In short, I don't understand why the Trump administration is threatening to pull out of an international treaty that has been around for like 30 years, and doesn't seem to be doing any harm. Unless they think they can browbeat the Russians into signing a better (in our view) treaty, just to keep the disarmament thing running.
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