Blogs For Victory

With a wave of my magic wand “poof” and you, dear reader, are now President of the United States. Pretty cool, except that I’ve landed you in a situation where two days ago a 1 kiloton nuclear weapon was detonated in Manhattan. About 100,000 Americans are dead, twice that number wounded and the American financial system is in complete meltdown. Incontrovertible evidence is now presented to you showing that the nuclear weapon originated in Iran. What do you do?

Do you order a nuclear strike on Iran? I believe our least powerful nuclear weapon is 5 kilotons, presumptively able to do much more serious damage to, say, Tehran than a one kiloton device did to Manhattan. Meanwhile, the nuclear weapons aboard our submarine force (and thus likely to be most swiftly available for use) are 475 kilotons. Packs quite a wallop. Lets say, just for argument, that if you use an American nuclear weapons that you will kill at least 250,000 Iranians…and maybe a million or more.

Do you order large scale conventional bombing attacks? Our B-2 bombers can each carry 20 tons of bombs – with 20 in stock, lets say you order ten of them to do a bombing run on Tehran…200 tons of bombs. You can use about 40 of our B-1s, each also carrying about 20 tons…800 more tons of bombs. And then there is the ready standby, the B-52; you get to use 50 of these, carrying 30 tons each…1,500 more tons of bombs. You total out at about 2,500 tons of bombs for your attack on Tehran. How many people would that kill?

Of course, you could eschew all that and just have Congress declare war formally, and then you can spend a year raising the necessary military force for a full scale invasion of Iran – which will likely cost many thousands of US soldiers their lives, but would probably cost hundreds of thousands of Iranian soldiers their lives, as well as an untold number of Iranian civilians caught in the crossfire.

Or, you can do nothing.

None of these choices is really appealing, is it? Much better if you never have to make such a decision – which, in turn, is why it is vital we curb nuclear proliferation, as John McCain desires:

As President, John McCain Will Establish A Long-Term Commitment To A World Free Of Nuclear Weapons. Like President Reagan, John McCain believes we can see a day when nuclear weapons are banished from the Earth. While a distant and difficult goal, we must proceed toward it prudently and pragmatically, and with a focused concern on our security and our allies’ security. The time has come to take further measures to reduce the number of nuclear weapons, and the U.S. must be a leader.

John McCain’s Highest Priority Will Be To Reduce The Danger Nuclear Weapons Will Ever Be Used. We must seek to do all we can to ensure that nuclear weapons will never again be used. While working closely with our allies, John McCain will ask the Joint Chiefs of Staff to engage in a comprehensive review of all aspects of our nuclear strategy and policy.

At The Same Time, The U.S. Must Continue To Deploy A Safe And Reliable Nuclear Deterrent, Robust Missile Defense And Superior Conventional Forces.

John McCain Supports Further Strategic Arms Reductions. John McCain will seek to reduce the size of our nuclear arsenal to the lowest number possible consistent with our security requirements and global commitments, moving as rapidly as possible to a significantly smaller force.

John McCain Will Work To Strengthen Existing International Treaties And Institutions To Combat Proliferation And Develop New Ones Where Necessary. The U.S. should move quickly to negotiate a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty and improve the ability to interdict the spread of nuclear weapons and material under the Proliferation Security Initiative. John McCain will increase funding for American nonproliferation efforts, including the Cooperative Threat Reduction programs established by the landmark Nunn-Lugar legislation.

To Prevent Countries From Using Civilian Nuclear Programs As A Cover For The Development Of Nuclear Weapons, John McCain Will Limit The Further Spread Of Enrichment And Reprocessing. John McCain supports international guarantees of nuclear fuel supply to countries that renounce enrichment and reprocessing. He also supports establishing international nuclear enrichment centers and an international repository for spent nuclear fuel.

When you have heard me state over and over again these past few years that Iran must not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, this is what I’m thinking of – lots of dead Americans making a situation where we make lots more dead Iranians. Massacre, however, is not good policy on either a strategic or moral plane. My whole motivation – and I believe this is shared by President Bush now, and will be shared by a President McCain – has been to reduce the possibility of an attack on the United States even more horrible than that which we endured on September 11th. We can’t do this by diddling with the UN or waiting for our enemies to become reasonable – we have to attack the problem with diplomatic, economic and military means. In the end, if Iran – and other grave threats to world peace – refuse to give up their nuclear ambitions, then we must compell them to do so, even if this requires military action. Any such action will end up being far less costly than any enemy attack on us, and our retaliation against them.

Preventing the spread of nuclear weapons – regardless of cost to ourselves – is not really a debatable position. But Obama’s position on this (unconditional negotiations with Iran followed hard upon a US withdrawal from Iraq) is beneath contempt. Essentially, Obama’s policies would just about ensure that either Obama or his successor will be faced with the scenario I described. A six year old fed on fairy tales can hold such views, but men and women who are serious about the world know better. We must have a President who deals in reality – with the world as it is, not as a liberal hopes it will be. We have enemies. There are evil people in the world. We must prevent the worst weapons from falling into the worst hands. It will be wonderful if we can get all we want by talking, but we must be prepared to do whatever proves necessary. McCain’s plan is hopeful but also realistic, and I pray that we’ll have a chance to really end this long-standing nuclear menace.