Next on the list of things I seem to be the only one freaking out about...
We are radically and rapidly changing our policy regarding nuclear first strike. It is starting to look like a pretty good idea to the current administration, especially against foes who do not have the capability to respond in kind.
We are seeing rationalizations, recriminations, repercussions... and we haven't actually hauled off and used one yet. I know, you think I am overreacting.
Let's see...
The story begins a long time ago, and has many twists and turns. In short, we had a lot of really big nasty nukes that no one wanted to use. MAD, and all of that. There is much history and debate around everything that brought us to the time of the Soviet break up, and I will not try to cover it here. Ample resources exist, should you wish to refresh your memory.
Let me instead begin at the beginning of the end. I'll start in May, 2001, when G. W. gave a speech at the National Defense University. Bush took this opportunity to test market some of the administration's new ideas. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty? The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty? We don't need those any more, they're old-school. The big ICBMs? Let's continue to phase those out, and instead really light a fire under the development of smaller nukes that we can actually get away with using. Retaliation? Let's create a magic umbrella that will protect us. This speech was formulated using the standard rhetoric, and there was some reasonable doubt as to whether any of it would really come to pass.
Fast forward through most of a year of debate and further rhetoric, and we have the Congressionally mandated Nuclear Posture Review. Released to Congress by the Bush administration in January 2002, the NPR calls for new types of nuclear weapons, proposes new roles for their use, and emphasizes a strengthened commitment to building new nuclear weapons. Now it is official. It is policy.
We are going to use our nuclear capability to fight wars, not sit around and gather dust.
There is plenty of insightful commentary on this madness.
On December 11 2002, Donald Rumsfeld sent Bush a memorandum asking for authority to place James Ellis, commander of STRATCOM, in charge of the full range of "strategic" warfare options to combat terrorist states and organizations. In January 2003 Bush approved the proposal.
This means that one entity now makes decisions on deployment of both conventional and nuclear weaponry, in the same context.
There is not much more to say. If you are not disturbed yet, teach me that trick. I'll finish up by referring to the immediate likelihood that we will be cranking it up for real, sometime soon.
I am disturbed.