Ask Blockheads and you get Blockheads’ Answers.Top Brass call for Nuclear First Strike
According to the Sydney Morning Herald (full article there),
“Top brass call for nuclear first strike
THE West must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the “imminent” spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new NATO.
The document, written by five of the West’s most senior military officers and strategists, has been presented to the Pentagon and NATO’s secretary-general.
They have called for root-and-branch reform of NATO and a new pact drawing the US, NATO and the European Union together in a “grand strategy”.
The former armed forces chiefs from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands insist that a “first strike” nuclear option remains an “indispensable instrument” since there is “simply no realistic prospect of a nuclear-free world”.”….
“The proposals are likely to be discussed at a NATO summit in Bucharest in April…..
“The risk of further [nuclear] proliferation is imminent and, with it, the danger that nuclear war fighting, albeit limited in scope, might become possible,” the authors argue.”…….
“They paint an alarming picture of the threats and challenges confronting the West and deliver a withering verdict on the ability to cope. The five commanders argue that the West’s values and way of life are under threat, but that the West is struggling to summon the will to defend them.”
Among the most radical changes they demand are:
” The use of force without United Nations Security Council authorisation when “immediate action is needed to protect large numbers of human beings”.
What are the West’s values and way of life? Could it be the continuing and accelerating inequality in the distribution of the Earth’s riches, as discussed in my previous post? Could the proposal of the military brass lead to final disaster? Would it be more reasonable to tackle the underlying social and economic problems threatening stability?
February 9th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
[...] Past wars were bad and killed many millions, wars may be far worse in the more crowded world of the future with its more destructive weapons. The United States, with its scientific, technological and economic power, could change the world for the better, and for the far worse, since it becomes more likely that the use of nuclear weapons will not be anathema in future wars (see here). [...]