Risk of nuclear war greater than any other time: Analyst

Washington’s plan to upgrade the US nuclear arsenal indicates that it would use nuclear weapons in a future war, American author and radio host Stephen Lendman says.

“The risk of nuclear war today is greater than any other time in my lifetime,” Lendman said in an interview with Press TV.

Lendman made the comments as Japan marked the 71st anniversary of the US military’s atomic bombing of the western city of Hiroshima.

The Hiroshima bombing on August 6, 1945 claimed the lives of 140,000 people. Some died immediately while others succumbed to their wounds or radiation-related illnesses later.

Three days after the incident, the US dropped a plutonium bomb on the southern port city of Nagasaki, killing more than 70,000 people.

“I fear the fact that America used nuclear weapons before and that it is upgrading its nuclear arsenal … (is) only for one purpose and that’s to wage war,” Lendman said.

“As America used nukes once you can bet the time will come that they would use them again, and not just one or two, maybe dozens,” he added.

“So humanity risks the possibility of annihilation because of neocon lunatics infesting Washington,” he concluded.

In May, Barack Obama visited Hiroshima, becoming the first sitting US president to set foot in the site of the world’s first nuclear bombing.

While Obama refused to issue an apology over the tragedy, he renewed his calls for a world free of nuclear weapons.

The US, however, is on course to spend around $1 trillion on upgrading its nuclear arsenal over the next three decades.

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