Obama limits US use of nuclear weapons

This has got to be the most foolish thing I have read yet.

The New York Times: It eliminates much of the ambiguity that has deliberately existed in American nuclear policy since the opening days of the cold war. For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons or launched a crippling cyberattack.

Those threats, Mr. Obama argued, could be deterred with “a series of graded options,” a combination of old and new conventional weapons. “I’m going to preserve all the tools that are necessary in order to make sure that the American people are safe and secure,” he said in the interview in the Oval Office.

White House officials said the new strategy would include the option of reconsidering the use of nuclear retaliation against a biological attack, if the development of such weapons reached a level that made the United States vulnerable to a devastating strike.

Mr. Obama’s new strategy is bound to be controversial, both among conservatives who have warned against diluting the United States’ most potent deterrent and among liberals who were hoping for a blanket statement that the country would never be the first to use nuclear weapons.

This is pure foolishness. By not stating when or where we would use nukes in our old policy, the US sent a loud and clear message to the world: “Don’t even think about it”.  Obama’s new strategy does away with that message and replaces it with the word “if”.  It is the “if” that now makes attacking the US a considerable thought and that is what puts us at risk.

While I am sure Obama will renege on this policy just like he has reneged on all his other promises, rogue nations like Iran may still try to test the waters. Islamic fanatics for example believe the survival of their religion takes precedent over the survival of any Islamic state. Such thinking could easily lead to testing this crazy new policy of Obama.  

Via: Memeorandum

Via: The New York Times