{"id":189271,"date":"2010-04-25T05:45:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-25T10:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2010\/04\/25\/unbelievably-fing-stupid\/"},"modified":"2010-04-25T05:45:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-25T10:45:00","slug":"unbelievably-fing-stupid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2010\/04\/25\/unbelievably-fing-stupid\/","title":{"rendered":"Unbelievably F%$#ing Stupid"},"content":{"rendered":"
Let’s look at the targets and paths, shall we?<\/p>\n
\n

<\/a>
Pakistan<\/p>\n

<\/a>
North Korea<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Iran<\/span><\/div>\n

Well, we now have SecDef Robert Gates saying that the U.S. has conventionally ballistic missiles in deployment<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Responding to a question from NBC\u2019s David Gregory on the ability to deter nuclear armed rogue states, Gates said: \u201cWe have, in addition to the nuclear deterrent today, a couple of things we didn\u2019t have in the Soviet days\u2026 And we have prompt global strike affording us some conventional alternatives on long-range missiles that we didn\u2019t have before.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is f%$#ing insane<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Incoming ballistic missiles, whether with nuclear, conventional explosive, or kinetic warheads, all look the same from launch until the moment of impact<\/span>, and so are very<\/span> likely to trigger a nuclear counterstrike.<\/p>\n

I’m with Noah Shachtman on this one<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Obama administration is poised to take up one of the more dangerous and hare-brained schemes of the Rumsfeld-era Pentagon. The New York Times is reporting that the Defense Department is once again looking to equip intercontinental ballistic missiles with conventional warheads. The missiles could then, in theory, destroy fleeing targets a half a world away \u2014 a no-notice \u201cbolt from the blue,\u201d striking in a matter of hours. There\u2019s just one teeny-tiny problem: the launches could very well start World War III<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

The Pentagon mumbled all kinds of assurances that Beijing or Moscow would never, ever, never misinterpret one kind of ICBM for the other. But the core of their argument essentially came down to this: Trust us, Vlad Putin! That ballistic missile we just launched in your direction isn\u2019t nuclear. We swear<\/span>!<\/span><\/p>\n

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld couldn\u2019t even muster that coherent of a defense. <\/span>[Though the juxtaposition of, “Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld” and, “Coherent,” is generally a losing battle anyway.]<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in the world would know that [the missile] was conventional,\u201d he said in a press conference, \u201cafter it hit within 30 minute<\/span>s.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(emphasis mine<\/span>)<\/p>\n

So, you will know after<\/span> a missile hits the target whether or not it is a decapitating nuclear strike aimed at you.<\/p>\n

Somehow, this is not<\/span> reassuring, particularly since if we have a tool like this, we would likely use it on an at least annual basis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s look at the targets and paths, shall we? Pakistan North Korea Iran Well, we now have SecDef Robert Gates saying that the U.S. has conventionally ballistic missiles in deployment: Responding to a question from NBC\u2019s David Gregory on the ability to deter nuclear armed rogue states, Gates said: \u201cWe have, in addition to the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1180,1044,982,1147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-missiles","category-nuclear-weapons","category-stupid","category-tactics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189271"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}