YOU CAN'T PLEASE WINGNUTS

I suspect that if Pres. Obama announced he was going to triple the number of our nuclear weapons, they'd still whine. As it is, these wannabe Hermann Kahn's are screaming that his decision to revamp our nuclear policy is extremely harmful to the security of America. (see here, here and here)

As usual, the reality is far different:

U.S. Keeps First-Strike Strategy
Obama Narrows the Range of Possible Targets in New National Nuclear-Weapons Policy
By JONATHAN WEISMAN And PETER SPIEGEL
APRIL 6, 2010
The Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration will release a new national nuclear-weapons strategy Tuesday that makes only modest changes to U.S. nuclear forces, leaving intact the longstanding U.S. threat to use nuclear weapons first, even against non-nuclear nations.

The nuclear strategy will not take U.S. nuclear weapons off submarines, bombers and missiles that could fire them at a moment's notice.

A later WSJ article adds a little more information:

U.S. Narrows Role of Nuclear Arms
By PETER SPIEGEL
APRIL 6, 2010
The Wall Street Journal

The posture review stops short of declaring that deterring a nuclear attack is the "sole purpose" of U.S. nuclear weapons, however. The document says that because there are states that are not living up to non-proliferation promises, there remains "a narrow range of contingencies" in which U.S. nuclear arms still play a role in deterring a conventional or chemical attack against the U.S. and its allies.

The caveat appears to be a thinly veiled reference to both Iran and North Korea, countries that are party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but have either been cited for violating their commitments under the pact or, in the case of North Korea, have threatened to withdraw from the agreement.

At the same time, Mr. Gates wrote that the Obama administration will invest billions of additional funds to "rebuild" the U.S.'s existing nuclear stockpile, including a program to extend the life of current warheads.

In addition, the review found that the current "alert posture" of U.S. nuclear weapons—in which nearly all intercontinental ballistic missiles are on alert and a "significant number" of nuclear-equipped submarines are at sea at any given time—should be maintained

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