Talk:Proposed United States doctrine would expand possible use of nuclear weapons

Be careful with this one
Don't get caught up into the traditional media hype of making a mountain out of a mole hill. This is an update of existing doctrine, which happens routinely at the Pentagon. And this is the "public" doctrine, not necessarily something that is kept in a top secret file, which can vary as well.

Besides, most versions of this story suggested that the President of the United States is authorized to launch nukes under some new strategies or something like that. This is the President of the USA we are talking about, and he can do any damn thing he cares to in that regard. He doesn't have to listen to some weinee in the Pentagon to tell him what he can and can't do for anything that involves military personnel, particularly in regards to when nukes can or can't be used. There are some safeguards to verify that it is indeed the President and not some impersonator or other idiot giving the order, and several people in the loop that have to tell the President "Are you sure you want to do this?" "Really, Really sure?" "You know, you don't have to do this right now. Try to call President so and so instead, he really might listen." and finally "This is your last chance to back out before you kill a million people."

All of that is because previous presidents have asked for that to happen as well, including Truman who actually carried out the orders back elsewhen. It is the job of the people in the Pentagon to plan an invasion of every country on the earth, including some that may not even be on Wikipedia at the moment because they are so small. This is a very, very minor change in existing policies, and something Bush can change at any time with a simple executive order, not even an act of Congress. Nor could congress really do much to change that for the President. --Robert Horning 23:00, 13 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Contrary to the above statement, this document is important. It is the public statement on the United State's deployment of nuclear forces. The document itself states that it is the "doctrine to govern the activities and performance of the Armed Forces of the United States in operations and provides the doctrinal basis for interagency coordination and for US military involvement in multinational operations" with regards to nuclear forces. This document's audience is not the Preseident of the United States as Robert seems to suggest. It "applies to the commanders of combatant commands, subunified commands, joint task forces, subordinate components of these commands, and the Services". It is the document that tells commanders when nuclear forces should be deployed, even though the President of the United States has final say over using those forces. It is also the guide that military planners use to determine nuclear force deployments when developing attack plans for countries around the globe.


 * Another reason this document is important is that it will guide other nations in their thinking about the deployment of US nuclear forces. Military planners outside the US will be reading this document to determine what they can of the strategic nuclear posture of the US, and they will in turn determine their conventional or nuclear strategy as appropriate. Part of the reason the document is made public is so that adversaries will understand the US's nuclear posture, and thus deter them from taking actions the US deems threatening.--Herda05 08:15, 16 September 2005 (UTC)