Dear CCI friends,
Our September trip, CCI’s largest and most complicated ever, is requiring long hours of preparation, then travel to Russia from Sept 1 – 21. During this time, we will send you articles taken from the blog of one of our favorite writers/commentators, Natylie Baldwin. I hope you find Natylie’s articles as fascinating and insightful as we do.
Once the trip begins, we will send short articles and photo-journals from Russia to describe the first-hand information and impressions we are gleaning day by day. Stay tuned!
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
Krieg
Americans are Complacent When it Comes to the Dangers of Nuclear War
June 27, 2019
By Natylie Baldwin
In a recent post, I mentioned the Congressional debate over authorizing and funding the use of “low-yield” or usable nukes, which has many worried that the threshold for the utilization of nuclear weapons would be significantly lowered. On June 11th, the Pentagon released its new policy doctrine on war fighting. As Antiwar.com noted, the U.S. has had a difficult time achieving anything resembling military victory in its numerous wars after 9/11 against much less technologically advanced adversaries, so now it appears that the Joint Chiefs of Staff are considering the use of nuclear weapons.
Experts and observers are worried that this is another attempt to get the idea of using nuclear weapons accepted in conflicts where nuclear weapons have not been used first by the opponent – indeed the opponent may not even possess them. According to The Guardian the doctrine was inspired by the theories of Cold War ideologist Herman Kahn, who is believed to have been the inspiration for the iconic Dr. Strangelove character: