Its personnel may be depressed, but at least they’re not launching nuclear weapons. Following up on his story of the17 launch crew members of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., who were removed from active duty, Robert Burns of the Associated Press reports: Officers with a finger on the trigger of […]
Tag Archives: nuclear weapons
Expand nuclear weapons programs to protect missileers’ tender psyches
Nuclear missile officers’ jobs weigh heavy on them but not for the reasons you’d think. On May 8 we posted about an article by Robert Burns of the Associated Press, in which he reported that the Air Force removed authority to control – and launch – nuclear missiles from 17 officers of the 91st Missile Wing in Minot, […]
Spirit of boondoggle departs quashed Los Alamos project, finds new one to possess
The construction of an expensive new plutonium pit facility has been abandoned. Will it be replaced a collection of smaller buildings? Thanks in large part to lawsuits filed by the Los Alamos Study Group, last year the Obama administration halted the construction of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility (CMRR-NF) at Los Alamos […]
Would Pakistan respond to India’s use of conventional weapons with nukes?
Theoretically Pakistan is poised to respond to Indian military retaliation for a terrorist strike with tactical nukes. It’s debatable how much nuclear weapons add to national security. But what’s undeniable is that they add layer upon layer of complexity, sprinkled with convoluted and even counterintuitive thinking (such as how missile defense systems are seen as […]
Minot’s launch control fail: Reason #532 why nuclear deterrence is a fragile foundation for peace
To concerns about human error in nuclear launch control add moodiness. Robert Burns of the Associated Press reports that the Air Force removed authority to control – and launch – nuclear missiles from 17 officers of the 91st Missile Wing in Minot, North Dakota after they were given a poor review for a series of mistakes. The […]
Emphasis added: the foreign policy week in pieces
As if Iran Isn’t Noticing [Philip Coyle of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation] worries that the overall effect of the White House’s about-face on nuclear weapons policy could prove counterproductive. “We don’t want more nuclear weapons in the world,” he says. “We’re asking North Korea to stop its program. We’re asking Iran to stop […]
Emphasis added: the foreign policy week in pieces
Iraq’s War for Terrorists Sets up Branch Campus in Syria Of especially grave concern is the movement into Syria of bomb makers and military tacticians. As Iraq’s jihad was for much of the past decade, Syria’s is now becoming the “destination jihad” du jour. Iraq: Where Terrorists Go to School, Jessica Stern, the New York […]
How did the administration find itself in debt to the nuclear labs?
Corporate contractors not only receive money from the federal government, but help dictate policy. Dienekes was a Spartan soldier noted for his bravery. Herodotus wrote of him in The Histories (via Wikipedia) It is said that on the eve of battle, he was told by a native of Trachis that the Persian archers were so numerous that, their […]
Nuclear weapons have outlived their usefulness — if they ever had any
Historian Ward Wilson pokes holes in the mythology of nuclear weapons. Long awaited by many of us in the arms control and disarmament communities, historian Ward Wilson’s book, Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in January. It doesn’t fail to deliver. What at first seems like a short book soon […]
Latest smoking gun on Iran’s nuclear program just another misfire
Yousaf Butt lays waste to the magnetic-ring-sign-of-Iran-nuclear-expansion theory. On February 13 Joby Warrick reported for the Washington Post that “Iran recently sought to acquire tens of thousands of highly specialized magnets used in centrifuge machines, according to experts and diplomats, a sign that the country may be planning a major expansion of its nuclear program […]
How our obsession with Iran increases chances of nuclear war with Russia
Missile defense cuts off our nose to spite our defense face. It’s common knowledge that, when it comes to protecting us from a nuclear launch by a major power such as Russia or China, missile defense has been found woefully lacking. At best, it’s supposed to protect the United States and Europe from states with […]
Nuclear weapons and voter ignorance are a lethal mix
Nuclear weapons are not only a threat to our survival, but to democracy itself. Most of us keep our distance from the subject of nuclear weapons. Nor is it hard to understand why. Many think that since the end of the Cold War, nuclear war has become a minor threat. Especially when compared to an […]
Y-12 activists may be barred from bringing up the morality of nukes at their trial
Federal prosecutors seek to remove justification for the existence of nuclear weapons from the trial of the Transform Now Plowshares Three. Remember the activists who infiltrated the Y-12 nuclear weapons complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on July 12? They’re members of Transform Now Plowshares, the current version of the original Plowshares Christian pacifist movement. The […]
WaPo's Dana Priest's alarmist excursion into the nuclear weapons-industrial complex
The Washington Post’s Dana Priest grossly underestimates the state of the U.S. nuclear-weapons program.
You've heard of friendly fire, now meet friendly deterrence
A pretext for the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in European states is to free them from the need to develop nuclear weapons.
Smaller nukes may present the larger risk
Battlefield, or “tactical,” nuclear weapons may be more of a threat than the larger “strategic” warheads.
S&R Honors
Click here to learn more about past honorees...- S&R Nonfiction: “The Nobodies,” by Jennifer Pocock
- “See You in Hell” and the dominatrix garage: The Lost Patrol drops a new video, and btw, the CD is fantastic
- Iran’s election nuclear, but not nuked
- More light! More light! Reviewing Fred Chappell’s Brighten the Corner Where You Are
- Happy Father’s Day: "The Day Daddy Died"
- Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, married, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama
- An open letter to Burt Rutan, regarding his WSJ commentary on human-caused climate disruption
- Meet the men of Match.com: Really, guys, are you serious?
- Climate scientists still besieged
- Pelosi on Bush: “He’s not worth impeaching”
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Frank Dilatush: And while decent men argue morality and honor, war…
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A Walkaway: Then Satan must care more about justice and truth …
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RetroHound: See, I don't think it's God's judgement, it's Sata…
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Ben Leib: Beautifully penned. The desperation of the situat…
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Russ Wellen: Fundamentally, I agree with both of you. It's just…
