Tuesday, October 28, 2003
When I was in the military, I read a lot of the Soviet Military Journal, "Red Star."
One thing I got really clearly from this journal, and from my readings from the USMC Command and Staff College, is that the Soviets saw nukes as nothing more than extraordinarily powerful explosives. They appeared to have absolutely none of the horror we have over the use of nuclear weapons.
American doctrine matched that of the Soviets, but was really never so explicit. I mean, we had nukes of all sorts, we were willing to use them, but we'd prefer not to be the first to do so; I mean, we had to consider the sensibilities of the West Germans.
Does anyone remember the Pershing missile deployments to West Germany, or the GLCMs at Greenham Common. Since the West is free, the deployment of nukes, never mind their actual use, was as much a political as a military issue. Western governments had to be careful how they approaced this question.
Witness today, the protests at the Shannon "War Port."
The Soviets didn't have to have such scruples. I mean, when you have the threat of a view of Siberia from the basement of the Lubyanka, you don't have to be concerned about the opinion of your citizens. In an adaptation of a Soviet-era joke, "We pretend to ask their opinion, and they pretend to give it."
After the Soviet Union fell, the US had to concern itself with the use of nukes in a world where nuclear conflict could be more widespread, and much less intense, than the incineration of the CONUS, the North German Plain, and the Russian heartland.
The result of much thinking came out in January, 2002, in "The Findings of the Nuclear Posture Review".
In this report nukes were made an explicit part of an equation that did not imagine megadeaths as a result of their use. A nuke was explicitly recognized as just a bigger bang, available for use when appropriate.
Merde alors! The French went ballistic, as it were. Nuclear Proliferation! Cowboy Yanks! Warmonger Bush!
Fast forward a year or so, and today we find that, with no pulic debate, the French nuclear forces are going the same way.
If we were to depend on French opinion for our defense, we would soon want for a country.
One thing I got really clearly from this journal, and from my readings from the USMC Command and Staff College, is that the Soviets saw nukes as nothing more than extraordinarily powerful explosives. They appeared to have absolutely none of the horror we have over the use of nuclear weapons.
American doctrine matched that of the Soviets, but was really never so explicit. I mean, we had nukes of all sorts, we were willing to use them, but we'd prefer not to be the first to do so; I mean, we had to consider the sensibilities of the West Germans.
Does anyone remember the Pershing missile deployments to West Germany, or the GLCMs at Greenham Common. Since the West is free, the deployment of nukes, never mind their actual use, was as much a political as a military issue. Western governments had to be careful how they approaced this question.
Witness today, the protests at the Shannon "War Port."
The Soviets didn't have to have such scruples. I mean, when you have the threat of a view of Siberia from the basement of the Lubyanka, you don't have to be concerned about the opinion of your citizens. In an adaptation of a Soviet-era joke, "We pretend to ask their opinion, and they pretend to give it."
After the Soviet Union fell, the US had to concern itself with the use of nukes in a world where nuclear conflict could be more widespread, and much less intense, than the incineration of the CONUS, the North German Plain, and the Russian heartland.
The result of much thinking came out in January, 2002, in "The Findings of the Nuclear Posture Review".
In this report nukes were made an explicit part of an equation that did not imagine megadeaths as a result of their use. A nuke was explicitly recognized as just a bigger bang, available for use when appropriate.
Merde alors! The French went ballistic, as it were. Nuclear Proliferation! Cowboy Yanks! Warmonger Bush!
Fast forward a year or so, and today we find that, with no pulic debate, the French nuclear forces are going the same way.
If we were to depend on French opinion for our defense, we would soon want for a country.
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