No Big Deal: The Pentagon Thinks the Use of Nuclear Weapons Could Be Just Peachy
Literally.
Some choice quotes from The Guardian, including a link to the now-removed document; saw nothing in the NYT:
Some choice quotes from The Guardian, including a link to the now-removed document; saw nothing in the NYT:
The Pentagon believes using nuclear weapons could “create conditions for decisive results and the restoration of strategic stability”, according to a new nuclear doctrine adopted by the US joint chiefs of staff last week.
The document, entitled Nuclear Operations, was published on 11 June, and was the first such doctrine paper for 14 years. Arms control experts say it marks a shift in US military thinking towards the idea of fighting and winning a nuclear war – which they believe is a highly dangerous mindset.
“Using nuclear weapons could create conditions for decisive results and the restoration of strategic stability,” the joint chiefs’ document says. “Specifically, the use of a nuclear weapon will fundamentally change the scope of a battle and create conditions that affect how commanders will prevail in conflict.”
At the start of a chapter on nuclear planning and targeting, the document quotes a cold war theorist, Herman Kahn, as saying: “My guess is that nuclear weapons will be used sometime in the next hundred years, but that their use is much more likely to be small and limited than widespread and unconstrained.”
Kahn was a controversial figure. He argued that a nuclear war could be “winnable” and is reported to have provided part of the inspiration for Stanley Kubrick’s film Dr Strangelove.
The Nuclear Operations document was taken down from the Pentagon online site after a week, and is now only available through a restricted access electronic library. But before it was withdrawn it was downloaded by Steven Aftergood, who directs the project on government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists.
So, not only are Trump-lovers supporting, and probably themselves, a bunch of neofascist racist assholes; not only are they laughingly and lovingly supporting an administration hell-bent on pressing the gas pedal on carbon emissions, which will literally destroy the possibility for a decent life for their children; but they are also supporting an administration happily contemplating the use of nuclear weapons, which would be terminal for any breath of democracy, probably for civilization, and possibly for the species and millions of others. All in a matter of fifteen minutes, tops.
But don't forget: they're very good people, and we should bend over backward to understand them. And to stroke them.
If you don't, you're a hate-filled hater just filled with hate. You saw the gaslighting at Trump's first Nuremberg rally for 2020: it's the Democrats who are out to physically destroy Trump voters, the Constitution, and the nation, mostly by importing brown people.
He's a fucking Nazi, full stop, and 2020 will be a nightmare no matter what happens in the election.
He's a fucking Nazi, full stop, and 2020 will be a nightmare no matter what happens in the election.
And you, latte-sipper, with your nice house and 401(k), and after having done literally nothing but masturbate to Maddow's Russiagate porn: will you get out in the streets if and when Trump goes for the epochal, government-changing, fascist gold? Or will you decide that it's far better to be a Good German -- or to join up with the fascists you're now "resisting"?
The question answers itself.