Put your fingers in your ears and chant “no nukes!”

From Steven Crandell over at HuffPo we get this bit of naivete.

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  • How many nuclear weapons are there in the world? 26,000
  • How many nuclear weapons are on high alert, meaning they can be fired within minutes and detonated at the target site in less than an hour? 3,500
  • How many nuclear weapons does it take to kill a million people? One
  • The last time nuclear weapons were used more than 200,000 people died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
  • So when should we use nuclear weapons again?

You know the drill I am sure. We are supposed to get all upset here and the suggested answer Steve wants from us to the last question is “never!”. My answer is a bit more realistic and grown up – the answer to the last question is “When it is the best option”.

I fully support (no one asked me at the time of course) the use of nukes to end WWII. When I was training to face the overwhelming superiority in numbers of the Soviet armored forces in the late 80′s I though about that a lot in relation to nukes – and I would have supported their use to prevent a Soviet victory in Europe then as well.

The reality of our world is simple, and wishing it away isn’t going to change this. There are fanatical forces that wish to wipe us, and our country, off the face of history. In some cases, the threat of nuclear retaliation may well be the only thing that stops them from trying it. To survive and thrive we need to be able to do two things well…

• Project force when, and where, we chose
• Prevent others from doing the same against us successfully

Without that foundation, nothing else follows. Diplomacy, treaties, friendships and trading partnerships. It all flows from strength. In the end, you must be able to protect yourself. Without that, you are a victim and sooner or later you will be a slave.

Nuclear weapons exist. The knowledge will not disappear. Thus we need to develop, control and learn to defend against them.