Weaver argues there, more or less, that true conservatives subscribe to the chivalraic code of war precisely because it protects the innocent. Atomic warfare wipes out everything within a certain radius, indiscriminately.
Can't we admit that killing so many non-combatants was an unspeakable horror? Many of the responses on this thread strike me as rather jingoistic, and I would think a true conservative would acknowledge the horrors of atomic annhilation. Yes, we saved lives, but we unleashed an unspeakable evil in the process.
IMO, any true conservative should be able to recognize the "downside" of the bomb. God forbid we, or anybody else, ever do that again.