Wikipedia.
Donald Trump’s nominee to be an assistant secretary for the Defense Department’s nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs believes that the U.S. has the right to preemptively unleash nuclear weapons on other countries.
The New Republic‘s Emily Atkin wrote on Friday that Trump has nominated Guy B. Roberts to — according to the job description posted on the DoD website — “prevent, protect against, and respond to weapons of mass destruction threats” and advise Defense Sec. James Mattis on “matters concerning nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs.”
Roberts, Atkin said, has a strong resume. He is a 25-year veteran of the Marine Corps and has worked in nuclear weapons policy for NATO.
However, he is a strong proponent of the controversial doctrine of “first-use nuclear policy,” the belief that the U.S. reserves the right to strike other countries with nuclear weapons at will.
Pres. Barack Obama considered joining a “no first-use” pact, which Roberts responded to in 2016 with an essay for The National Interest titled “America Must Be Ready to Nuke First.”
In the essay, Roberts argued that the U.S. must function as a bulwark against Russian military aggression.
Mr. Roberts seems to have missed the memo detailing how Russia is our best fucking friend forever these days. It’s bad enough being stressed to the limit by every single day the Tiny Tyrant remains in office. It’s bad enough that there are calls to beef up the military even more, because the Great American Empire™ is collapsing, and military dominance is the holy solution, you bet. Now we get an idiot with an itchy trigger finger. I am now more worried about nuclear war than I was back in the 1960s and 1970s, and I was fair worried back then.
Via Raw Story.
That should be a good match with the Trump maladminstration then.
Same here. Mutual Assured Destruction only works if all parties are sane and competent. I don’t think Trumpigula is capable of understanding the consequences of his actions.
“FAKE NEWS!,” the trumpsters will shout, even as their faces melt like that of the nazi from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Nuking is surely the path to military dominance: if there’s nobody left, there’s nobody left to say you were wrong. And you can dominate the fuck out of all the rats and cockroaches and dandelions and water bears and maybe the naked molerats, too. Except you’re dead, too.
These people and logical, compassionate thinking -- oil-and-water with no detergent to reconcile them.
Terrifying.
“Nuking first” has always been USAnnihilate!Annihilate!Annihilate!’s strategy, in the sense it has always rejected the so-called “No first use” doctrine. The eejit in the OP’s alignment with current and historical policy in no why justifies either the policy or the eejit.
Odd, I simply assumed that first strike would be the US’ default position. Stockpiling weapons purely in self-defence just doesn’t sound American at all. You may complain about the broad brush I’m using there but that’s the reputation the US has built for itself. Sorry.
Wonderful, I’ll cross ‘Russian military aggression’ off of my list of concerns since it’s clearly dealt with. Next item, let’s see.. ah, yes: ‘US military agression’. Any suggestions? Please don’t suggest expanding the russian military. I’ve already crossed them out with permanent marker.
The US is the only country to use nuclear weapons -- and against civilian targets, at that. Hang your head in shame, don’t bluster.
Exactly Marcus, since when has the US not been ready to destroy first, by any and all means available?
A chilling detail about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing is that those cities were intentionally left unmolested by conventional bombing attacks so that the effect of the nuclear weapons could be more accurately assessed.