Right-wing HypeYesterday, The New York Times went viral with its article entitled, "Obama Limits When U.S. Would Use Nuclear Arms." Predictably, a lot of people aren't happy with the decision at all. I can't say that I'm entirely happy with it, but I'm certainly not unhappy for the same reasons as some commentators. (More on my own thoughts in a minute...)
With his classic "Oh Sh**!"-style headline shown above, Matt Drudge dramatically overstates the administration's new policy. Obama's nuclear policy does not restrict the use of nuclear weapons at all, ever, no matter what, even in self defense. Not by a long shot. What it does is modestly narrow potential U.S. nuclear targets.
What Obama's Nuclear Policy Really Does
Reports the Wall Street Journal (with my emphasis): "The Obama administration will release a new national nuclear-weapons strategy Tuesday that makes only modest changes to U.S. nuclear forces, leaving intact the longstanding U.S. threat to use nuclear weapons first, even against non-nuclear nations."
What Obama's nuclear policy does do, is resolve not to use nuclear weapons to retaliate for attacks (including chemical and biological attacks) by non-nuclear countries that are in compliance with nuclear non-proliferation treaties. I don't know how on earth this leaves us vulnerable or makes us look weak, as critics are trying to claim.
Nuclear Weapons Are Evil. Period.
President Obama is not saying we won't strike back if attacked by a foreign country. He is simply saying we won't use nuclear weapons to do so if that foreign country is non-nuclear and compliant with nuclear non-proliferation treaties. What could possibly be wrong with that? It seems perfectly sensible to me. In fact, stubbornly insisting that we reserve the right to use nuclear weapons on other countries at all- that is wrong.
Nuclear weapons have no legitimate military purpose. They are inherently weapons of mass murder. Because of their power and blast radius, nuclear weapons can exist for no other purpose than to indiscriminately wipe out large swaths of civilian population. This is never, ever justified under any circumstances. Indeed, deliberately targeting civilians for political or military purposes is terrorism. America should not reserve the right to be a terrorist nation.
Left-wing Hype, More of the Same
The problem with Obama's nuclear policy is not that it cedes too much or goes too far in restricting our nation's use of nuclear weapons. The problem is that it is only a very minor, almost symbolic step in the right direction. Like most of Obama's entire administration, this is just another example of hyped up "change" that obscures what is more or less a continuation of the status quo. Instead, we need to take bold leaps in the direction of nuclear disarmament.
But this will only happen and can only make sense in terms of a broader foreign policy that eschews aggression and uses the might of America's armed forces for the purpose of self-defense and only for that purpose. Nuclear disarmament will not set an example for the world, earn us any good will, or make the world any safer unless we also concurrently dismantle our global military empire- with its hundreds of overseas bases and installations- and end our interventionist foreign policy for good.
