Nuclear Posture Review advocates nukes against cyber attack

By Jan Oberg

On January 16, 2018, David E. Sanger and William J. Broad of the New York Times reported that “A newly drafted United States nuclear strategy that has been sent to President Trump for approval would permit the use of nuclear weapons to respond to a wide range of devastating but non-nuclear attacks on American infrastructure, including what current and former government officials described as the most crippling kind of cyberattacks.

For decades, American presidents have threatened “first use” of nuclear weapons against enemies in only very narrow and limited circumstances, such as in response to the use of biological weapons against the United States. But the new document is the first to expand that to include attempts to destroy wide-reaching infrastructure, like a country’s power grid or communications, that would be most vulnerable to cyberweapons. (JO italics)

The draft document, called the Nuclear Posture Review, was written at the Pentagon and is being reviewed by the White House.

Its final release is expected in the coming weeks and represents a new look at the United States’ nuclear strategy.

The draft was first published by HuffPost.”

Continue and read the article at New York Times here

The Transnational posted excerpts from HuffPost here.

This is, as stated by NYT, completely new. Other aspects of the coming Nuclear Posture Review likewise give reasons for concern – alarm. What the US does here is to “conventionalise” nuclear weapons, make them more use-able, lowering the threshold of their use and grossly increase the risk of nuclear war. It also means a final goodbye to classical deterrence – which began to be undermined by the Reagan Administration and, later, with the Ballistic Missile Defence developments.

Interesting too? I Piper & J Dyke: Tens of thousands of civilians likely killed by US in ‘Forever Wars’

Recommended readings

The Federation of American Scientists

Nuclear Posture Review, Nuclear Posture Review 2018, small nuclear weapons, using nuclear weapons against a cyber attack