Rethinking Nuclear Weapons - Pragmatic solutions to nuclear weapons

People talk about 9/11 and the profound re-evaluation it forced on us. The size of the psychic shock wave and the extent of the economic damage demonstrate convincingly, they say, how fragile the US is.

I draw the opposite conclusion from 9/11. The question is not how badly were people shaken, the question is: How many people stood up and advocated surrender?

People who talk about nuclear terrorism say things like, “If people reacted this way to 9/11, how would they react to losing an entire city?” But that misconstrues people’s reactions. Of course people were shocked and afraid. But the real measure of 9/11 is not the shock and fear, it is the well-spring of willingness to fight back. The American people were very willing to make war in the wake of 9/11. I don’t know of anyone who advocated capitulation. The … Read More »