Can You Take Calls For Nuclear Disarmament Seriously Without Serious Arguments?

The article Taking disarmament seriously, as with many arms control advocacy pieces, presumes what it sets out to prove. That doesn’t work for me.  I can’t take disarmament arguments seriously without serious arguments.  Arms controllers tend to be full of “we gotta” while ignoring the “and here’s how we’re gonna” part. So in the “we [...]

Former Dictator Not Dead Yet

Fidel Castro, once Cuba’s chief judge, jury, and executioner, made an appearance on Cuban television. Was it real or was it avatarded?  It was real, but does it matter? Castro pontificated on the middle east, nuclear war, and the United States. His intent was likely to show that he’s not dead yet and to support [...]

Nixon Planned Nuclear Strike On North Korea

The Telegraph says that President Nixon planned a nuclear strike on North Korea in 1969. Big deal.  The United States has planned for nuclear war with our adversaries since 1945…and I am willing to bet we still do. Many people plan to lose weight, write a will, exercise regularly, and quit smoking.  Often there are [...]

Alert Levels and Nuclear Weapon Systems

The Washington Post has an article called Lowering The Alert Levels In U.S. And Russia.  The article is a synopsis of a study entitled Reframing Nuclear De-Alert, Decreasing the operational readiness of U.S. and Russian arsenals.  The study was done by the EastWest Institute who partnered with government agencies of Switzerland and New Zealand to produce [...]

Peace, Nuke Is Thy True Name

David Von Drehle wastes little time in getting to the money line: “As long as a nukeless world remains wishful thinking and pastoral rhetoric, we’ll be all right.” The persuasive arguement is that industrial-age warfighting has wrought industrial-sized death and destruction on mankind.  But we haven’t had many world wars lately?  What keeps many of [...]

Will the Pentagon Thwart Obama’s Dream of Zero?

Dude, where’s my unicorn? While nukes are not our future, they are in our future and will be for a very long time. Nukes will go away when their value is or approaches zero, which will likely mean when they are made obsolete by anti-nuclear methods yet to emerge or are superseded by superior weapons. [...]

Showdown At Big Sky

Having reached a not-to-exceed measure of largeness, I have decided to run more. By the way, it is hot here in Alabama. I mean Tarzan couldn’t take it, its so hot. Anyway, I’ve retained an old habit, which is to run with music. Running without music is like farming without tractors. Yeah, you can do [...]

Mail In The Nuclear Posture Review?

Tally ho on the reset button? Well, at one level, it may appear so. Per public law, the purpose of the 2009 Nuclear Posture Review is to establish U.S. nuclear deterrence policy, strategy, and force posture for the next 5 to 10 years. It seems unclear how the NPR’s call for a measured, deliberate, consultative, [...]

Playlist: Songs of Space and Nuclear War

Less than a year ago–that is, when I first wrote this–in a fascinating juxtaposition of old and new, the world observed the 51st anniversary of Sputnik, the event which marked the dawn of the space age. Almost concurrently, the U.S. Air Force announced that reinvigorating its nuclear enterprise is now its highest priority. What did [...]