Within the past hour, a terrorist organization, known to have acquired several nuclear weapons, has been observed by a U.S. imaging system loading the weapons onto vehicles and preparing to leave for an unknown destination.
a preventive nuclear strike.....
- the consequences of an unprecedented action of this kind might well be regarded as unacceptable -- in terms of the risk to innocent lives, of environmental damage and of the expected political repercussions around the world.
Whew, thank God we didn't have that type of spineless mindset in 1945.
I wouldn't call it spineless, no matter what you think. Using a nuke is a political act with many unforseeable consequences. Say the area we are going to hit is close to the Chinese/Russian border. Niether one of these countries is going to think it is 'ok' for fallout to spread across their lands. They may also take an inbound ICBM and a preemptive strike and reply rather quickly without any explaination.
Fortunately for those of us who think of these things we don't have someone with an attitude like yours with a finger on the button.
It would be better to take the nukes out without a corresponding nuke attack, better to take them intact to see where the materials came from, and then most of the peacable governments, which we are one, will have the inducement to punish the suppliers.
"Within the past hour, a terrorist organization, known to have acquired several nuclear weapons, has been observed by a U.S. imaging system loading the weapons onto vehicles and preparing to leave for an unknown destination. A delay of even an hour or two in launching a U.S. strike on that location could mean the group would depart, contact might be lost, and the weapons would be smuggled into the United States or an allied nation and detonated. "
Let's change that a little bit and see how it would play.
Within the past hour, the leader of a terrorist organization, known to have caused several hundred deaths has been observed by a U.S. imaging system. A delay of even an hour or two in launching a U.S. strike on that location could mean the group would depart, contact might be lost, and the leader would be free to plan and execute another strike against the United States or an allied nations.
Now let's go back to the Clinton era and Osama. Clinton had a chance to kill Osama but relied on his attorneys to hold off until Osama left the area then fired missiles. Then he told the Times and Compost that they almost had him.