U.S. Nuclear Weapons in Turkey

With the nation of Turkey moving from being a secular nation to becoming a full-fledged Islamic state, maybe America should show more concern for the fact that we have nuclear weapons sitting in Turkey under the Turks' watchful eye. That's a potential nightmare.

Read from Israel Matzav:

What to do about American nukes in Turkey

"I'll bet a lot of you didn't know that NATO stores American nuclear weapons in Turkey. Frankly, neither did I. But they do.


'For more than 40 years, Turkey has been a quiet custodian of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons. During the Cold War, Washington positioned intermediate-range nuclear missiles and bombers there to serve as a bulwark against the Soviet Union (i.e., to defend the region against Soviet attack and to influence Soviet strategic calculations). In the event of a Soviet assault on Europe, the weapons were to be fired as one of the first retaliatory shots. But as the Cold War waned, so, too, did the weapons' strategic value. Thus, over the last few decades, the United States has removed all of its intermediate-range missiles from Turkey and reduced its other nuclear weapons there through gradual redeployments and arms control agreements.

Today, Turkey hosts an estimated 90 B61 gravity bombs at Incirlik Air Base. Fifty of these bombs are reportedly assigned for delivery by U.S. pilots, and forty are assigned for delivery by the Turkish Air Force. However, no permanent nuclear-capable U.S. fighter wing is based at Incirlik, and the Turkish Air Force is reportedly not certified for NATO nuclear missions, meaning nuclear-capable F-16s from other U.S. bases would need to be brought in if Turkey's bombs were ever needed.'


The reason for this situation is that NATO no longer uses tactical nuclear weapons. If the Turkish nuclear weapons were ever needed, it would take 'months' to ready them, according to the authors. The question is what, if anything, to do about them.

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One small point about Turkey that the authors don't even mention: Islamism. Turkey is on its way to becoming an Islamist state and that greatly complicates the picture.

If the US does not want another Pakistan on its hands, it may be wise to find a way to quietly disable those nuclear weapons so that they cannot be used to threaten American allies in Europe or the Middle East. Ignoring the problem won't make it go away."