Quite a lineup on nuclear weapons in today's @washingtonpost Outlook section!
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Replying to @Joshua_Pollack @washingtonpost
First,
@vermontgmg on the deep, ingrained reluctance to order a nuclear first strike:https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/would-the-president-actually-order-the-use-of-nuclear-weapons/2017/08/18/a7ff0ed8-837d-11e7-ab27-1a21a8e006ab_story.html?utm_term=.9d967f9e3815 …9 replies 3 retweets 13 likes -
Replying to @Joshua_Pollack @WardHayesWilson and
In both cases, Trump can easily be a counter-example if you want him to be. Not clear he has Truman's taboo. Not clear he cares about allies
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Replying to @wellerstein @Joshua_Pollack and
They (taboo and deterrence) are unmeasurable, untestable, and not scientific in any serious sense.
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Replying to @WardHayesWilson @Joshua_Pollack and
The evidence we do have on deterrence is that it is not 100% perfect as a strategy — it can fail for many reasons.
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Replying to @wellerstein @Joshua_Pollack and
Was Khrushchev deterred by the danger of nuclear war in Cuba? Or did he just get a deal he liked? We can’t know.
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Replying to @WardHayesWilson @Joshua_Pollack and
You've set up a really impossible epistemological bar. We can know some things, there are levels of knowledge & plausibility.
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Replying to @wellerstein @Joshua_Pollack and
I think I’m just asking for a certain level of scientific knowledge if we’re all going to be asked to risk being blown up.
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Replying to @WardHayesWilson @wellerstein and
We're in that position regardless.
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Replying to @Joshua_Pollack @wellerstein and
But it’s not inevitable that nuclear weapons exist. We choose to allow them to exist. Don’t make me quote JFK at you.
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But the question always is: what's the alternative? And does that result in a better world?
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Replying to @wellerstein @Joshua_Pollack and
Almost any alternative that doesn't risk 400 million dead and civilization set back for centuries is preferable.
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