Barack Obama's radical review on nuclear weapons reverses Bush policies

[famousringo]

Sqrl said:
And if I'm an enemy of the US I'm thinking - Boy those chemical and biological attacks seem like a good area to look into now that I won't get nuked for it.

I don't have any problem with him deciding to not use nukes in response to such attacks...well I disagree with it, but I see where he is coming from. What I cannot understand is the absolute stupidity in publicly saying you won't.

Like it or not nuclear weapons make for a fantastic deterrent, and while their detonation may be distasteful it has long been the case that their primary use lies in the threat of detonation and not actual detonation. Even if you would never use them in a given scenario the threat of using them in that scenario provides an immensely valuable deterrent, and you don't have to be overtly threatening for it to work either.

This policy is overwhelmingly naive...which in all honesty pretty much characterizes the man and the ideology driving the decision. So not that surprising really.

The thinking is that the policy will gain more in soft power than it sacrifices in hard power. As Kasz notes, a chemical/biological is very unlikely and there are plenty of deterrents in place that aren't nuclear. This policy provides a bargaining chip that the US can play whenever it wants to persuade somebody from developing nuclear weapons. You can protect yourself from American nukes by either having a nuclear deterrent or by not having and not seeking one. If you're in the process of building nukes, you are at the highest risk because America's nukes threaten you but you have no deterrent.

Of course, whether the tradeoff will actually be worthwhile is entirely speculative at this point. I'm sure Iran is more interested in deterring an Israeli strike than an American one.

In international relations, symbolic gestures are just as important as substantive actions. Hard to believe, but Iran actually offered support to the United States when it invaded Afghanistan so many years ago. It's hard to imagine the Iran of today offering the same support, even though it suits their interest to keep Afghanistan and the Taliban down. The three little words "axis of evil" instantly transformed Iran from a grudging ally into a determined enemy just as surely as sending fighters to test Iranian airspace would have.