Comments by e_f

Nirvana-bound, where do you think the US is getting its money from? While the UK has a massive deficit that it has to deal with, the US has the luxury of running up a deficit and being able to continue spending at the expense of every other country because of the role of the dollar.

rostbeef wrote: You think Belgium, Germany or a hundred other countries feel less safe because they don't have nukes? Of course, they don't.

-The reason they may feel slightly safe from current nuclear threats (and we must not forget the unpredictability of future nuclear threats which could come from states) is because they are nicely protected through NATO and Article V and the fact that there are US bases on their soil with a number of nuclear weapons on them.

There are an estimated 20 American nuclear weapons in Germany, from a total of around 200 in Europe.(http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680174,00.html)

These 200 NW are deployed across Turkey, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

Maybe that is why countries such as Germany and Belgium can avoid having to have nuclear weapons themselves- they rely on someone else to possess them.

In addition, you mention that these are weapons you cannot use and have never needed. The whole principle is that these weapons are a deterrence and thus a wager that the promise of destructive retaliation is enough to deter any aggressive action in the first place.