Welcome to madman Trump World.
The U.S. Air Force is preparing to put nuclear-armed bombers back on 24-hour ready alert, a status not seen since the Cold War ended in 1991, reports Defense One.
This means the long-dormant concrete pads at the ends of this base’s 11,000-foot runway — dubbed the “Christmas tree” for their angular markings — could once again
find several B-52s parked on them, laden with nuclear weapons and set to take off at a moment’s notice, says DO.
Also according to the report, Gen. David Goldfein, who is the Air Force’s top officer and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is asking his force to think about new ways that nuclear weapons could be used for deterrence, or even combat.
During his trip across the country last week, Goldfein encouraged airmen to think beyond Cold War uses for ICBMs, bombers and nuclear cruise missiles.
“I’ve challenged…Air Force Global Strike Command to help lead the dialog, help with this discussion about ‘What does conventional conflict look like with a nuclear element?’ and ‘Do we respond as a global force if that were to occur?’ and ‘What are the options?’” he said. “How do we think about it — how do we think about deterrence in that environment?”
-RW
Great. We have the weapons. All we need now is the enemy. I wonder who they'll choose?
ReplyDeleteStatists often ridicule you if you raise the "slippery slope" argument against any state action. In contrast to many libertarians, who I believe have very broad views of implications and history, and can better appreciate whole systems, statists seem to focus on individual events and just evaluate them in the here and now.
ReplyDeleteWith respect to the North Korean situation, sure, Trump is a lunatic, infatuated with the military and its supposed solution to all problems. However, we are at this point because of statists cumulatively supporting American involvement in both world wars, the Cold War and the Korean War, military imperialism, staying in South Korea, ousting Ghaddafi and Saddam Hussein, etc.
Kudos to Ron Paul who has been consistent and unflinching in warning about long-run consequences such as "blowback" with respect to interventions in the Middle East. It's important to keep this concept and these warnings front and center, not necessarily to resolve today's tensions, but to try to avoid new tensions arising years from now based on statist stupidity today.
As long as the timeline doesn't involve the statists using those nukes.
DeleteYeah.
DeletePer Robert's other blog posts over the past 24 hours, the US could end up in a dangerous stand-off with some state in Africa in the future akin to what's going on with North Korea today. All starting with "We need to pursue terrorists in Africa."
It is important not to lose sight of the significance of the words cited on this page. Consider: Gen. David Goldfein is documented as looking for ways to use a particular category of weapons (nuclear, in this case) without even first establishing that there is some necessity for using them or even having a particular conflict or enemy in mind. In other words, find an excuse for using the weapons, find a feasibility for using the weapons, and look for a reason or necessity for making nuclear war later. This is insanity -- yet there is method in it. This is the reason the military has not produced an outcome remotely close to the publicly promulgated supposed goals of any conflict since the one ending in 1945. War-making has become an end in itself: "victory" is entirely beside the point. This is why empires cannot be reversed, why they double-down on apparent irrational courses of action until they inevitably suffer catastrophe of one sort or another. The exercise of power always creates perverse unintended consequences. The War Machine has become an end in itself, and has been for some time.
ReplyDelete