The Pentagon said Tuesday it would sharply cut the number of US submarine and bomber-launched nuclear weapons, and preserve most of the nation’s land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles to comply with the New START treaty with Russia.

Never mind that the subs and bombers lend an enormous flexibility of response that’s utterly lacking in the missile force.  Never mind, also, that the submarine force is the most survivable (so far) of our nuclear forces.

Never mind that we shouldn’t be disarming unilaterally at all, much less while our enemies are building up their military forces and actively employing them against our friends and allies.  Never mind, also, that Russia is actively supporting Bashar al Assad’s butchery of his own people in Syria and has returned to obstructing efforts to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

Defense officials said the decision on the US nuclear forces needed to be made well in advance of the 2018 deadline set by the New START treaty.

Only a bureaucracy thinks it needs four years advance notice to start making such drawdowns.  Only this administration thinks we need to honor a treaty that our treaty “partner” has abrogated already, in fact, if not within the letter of the treaty, by attacking our friends and by threatening our allies and other of our friends.

Of course, the People’s Republic of China is watching this timidity closely, as it pushes its territorial designs on Japanese, Philippine, Viet Namese, and Republic of China/Japan (disputed) islands and sea holdings in the East and South China Seas.  The PRC also is watching closely, as it continues its support for northern Korea’s and Iran’s nuclear weapons programs.

What is this administration thinking?  Oh, wait….