The Bloated Nuclear Weapons Budget AOW #8

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opinion/sunday/the-bloated-nuclear-weapons-budget.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

This week I read an editorial about America's nuclear weapons budget that many believe to be over-funded.  The authors state that with 2,500 deployed nuclear weapons and 2,600 as backup, we spend too much on nuclear weapons.  In the article, it states that the budget could rise up to $600 billion over the next decade.  They propose many ideas to save billions of dollars regarding this budget.  The authors of this piece are credible because they are supported by the New York Times, which is a very reliable source.  Also, with the facts they bring up in the piece, they are obviously well-read on the subject.  This editorial was written as a response to the believed overspending on nuclear weapons.  People who do not believe, or know, that the government is spending this much on nuclear weapons are the audience of this piece.  This editorial was written to make the audience believe the same thing as them.  Some rhetorical elements in this piece are the ethos and logos used by the authors.  They used logos through the facts and statistics that they brought to the piece.  They used this logos to develop their ethos so that the audience believes their claim.  This piece achieved its purpose through this very effective use of ethos and logos.