Now what was this Doomsday machine that Mr. Putin spoke of in Moscow? It sounds quite intriguing.
Posted on 07/11/2009 7:38:08 PM PDT by nuconvert
The former defense secretary on the U.S. deterrent and the terrorist threat.
'Nuclear weapons are used every day." So says former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, speaking last month at his office in a wooded enclave of Maclean, Va. It's a serene setting for Doomsday talk, and Mr. Schlesinger's matter-of-fact tone belies the enormity of the concepts he's explaining -- concepts that were seemingly ignored in this week's Moscow summit between Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev.
We use nuclear weapons every day, Mr. Schlesinger goes on to explain, "to deter our potential foes and provide reassurance to the allies to whom we offer protection."
Mr. Obama likes to talk about his vision of a nuclear-free world, and in Moscow he and Mr. Medvedev signed an agreement setting targets for sweeping reductions in the world's largest nuclear arsenals. Reflecting on the hour I spent with Mr. Schlesinger, I can't help but think: Do we really want to do this?
For nuclear strategists, Mr. Schlesinger is Yoda, the master of their universe. In addition to being a former defense secretary (Nixon and Ford), he is a former energy secretary (Carter) and former director of central intelligence (Nixon). He has been studying the U.S. nuclear posture since the early 1960s, when he was at the RAND Corporation, a California think tank that often does research for the U.S. government. He's the expert whom Defense Secretary Robert Gates called on last year to lead an investigation into the Air Force's mishandling of nuclear weapons after nuclear-armed cruise missiles were mistakenly flown across the country on a B-52 and nuclear fuses were accidently shipped to Taiwan. Most recently, he's vice chairman of a bipartisan congressional commission that in May issued an urgent warning about the need to maintain a strong U.S. deterrent.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
OK then. Let’s move that the US get rid of all nuclear weapons & materials tomorrow. That’ll show ‘em. You really want to saddle up? Think others will follow your ‘lead’ in that?
Didn’t think so. This world is not Star Trek.
I assume your comment is directed at Obama?
Even if we did get rid of all the nukes
scientist wud still find something worse
“Why We Don’t Want a Nuclear-Free World”
In a word, because nuclear weapons are the greatest force for peace in the history of the world.
Further, any attempt to denuclearize the major powers will only destabilize the world, resulting in massive nuclear or non-nuclear carnage.
Nukes will no longer be needed when all nations are free and have no fears of attack from another.
So profoundly true that it really hurts to see what our totally misguided POTUS just did in moscow!!!
Oh yes.
Likewise, in a "nuclear-free" world, there will be plenty of rogue terrorist quasi-states wielding their nukes against the now "nuclear-free" democracies, republics, and freedom loving peoples.
Thank God For the Bomb - Ozzy Osbourne
Like moths to a flame
Is man never gonna change
Time’s seen untold aggression
And infliction of pain
If that’s the only thing that’s stopping war
Then thank god for the bomb
Thank god for the bomb
Thank god for the bomb
Thank god for the bomb
Nuke ya nuke ya
War is just another game
Tailor made for the insane
But make a threat of their annihilation
And nobody wants to play
If that’s the only thing that keeps the peace
Then thank god for the bomb
Thank god for the bomb
Thank god for the bomb
Thank god for the bomb
Nuke ya nuke ya
Today was tomorrow yesterday
It’s funny how the time can slip away
The face of the doomsday clock
Has launched a thousand wars
As we near the final hour
Time is the only foe we have
When war is obsolete
I’ll thank god for the war’s defeat
But any talk about hell freezing over
Is all said with tongue in cheek
Until the day the war drums beat no more
Then thank god for the bomb
Thank god for the bomb
Thank god for the bomb
Thank god for the bomb
Nuke ya nuke ya
I wonder... Is the author related to our former UN Secretary under Ronald Reagan???
The primary mission of a nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal is to wait. and wait. and wait.
As long as it sits and waits, whether in a missile silo, in a launch tube of an SSBN, or on a bomber on the ready line, it is accomplishing its primary mission. “Don’t even think of .....”.
The time that there has to be a weapons release, that weapon has failed its primary mission, and is proceeding with its secondary mission.
It’s called deterrance, and it has worked for over fifty years.
But now, all we gotta do is just talk to Imadinnerjacket or Lil Kim, cuz their just misunderstood? This is beyond Neville Chamberlain!
“Nukes will no longer be needed when all nations are free and have no fears of attack from another.”
Your conditions will never happen. Whether some far day centuries away all nations are ‘free’ (do you feel that free in the US now? I am not sure we were not much freer 20-40 years ago overall), resources and land are major areas of historic conflict and that isn’t going to change in any future time I can possibly speculate on.
Crazy ideas of national glory like the former USSR.
I don’t know. At least, she isn’t Jeane Kirkpatrick’s daughter - she only had sons
A tragically ignorant view of the world. As I just wrote in another thread: "...a lightweight, whom others shall use as a pawn to their own ends."
What unrighted wrongs haunt you? What needs do you believe you have which you would satisfy by forcing others to provide unto you? What crimes do you imagine warrant police threat of fine, imprisonment, or death - even if the outcome of the "crime" is harmless? What goals would you achieve through the unwilling coerced/forced cooperation of others? Eh? You are the 'other' whom many fear attack from, even if by proxy or effect.
“But now, all we gotta do is just talk to Imadinnerjacket or Lil Kim, cuz their just misunderstood? This is beyond Neville Chamberlain!”
The concern over the third world countries getting nukes is simply that they, relatively speaking, have nothing to live for anyhow. Iran, in particular, is ruled by apocalyptic nutjobs!
So, if they do get nukes, they’re liable to use them whether it’s rational or not. I hope Israel takes out Iran’s nuclear program, it sure worked well enough in Iraq! Sadly, Bush didn’t do the right thing and use B-2s before he left office.
Now what was this Doomsday machine that Mr. Putin spoke of in Moscow? It sounds quite intriguing.
Don’t be so sure.
Democracy has spread like wildfire almsot overnight when you look at the long course of humnan history.
At any rate, we need nuclear weapons likely for quite some time to come.
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