A great way to get nuked

The Boston Globe has an interesting story today on the Pentagon's plan to use conventionally armed ICBMs against terrorists.

In a clear call against proliferation, Rumsfeld said it's a great idea for the United States but not a big deal for other countries, because only a few countries can shoot back at the United States. Rumsfeld just wants to let the Russians know about the conversion process, but not actually tell them when an ICBM is being launched.

Besides, he added, ``everyone in the world would know" that the US missile was not nuclear ``after it hit within 30 minutes" of launch.

``Or 10 minutes," interjected Sergei Ivanov, the Russian defense minister who discussed the subject at a joint news conference with Rumsfeld. ... By noting that a long-range missile might hit its target in as little as 10 minutes from launch, Ivanov appeared to be emphasizing the short time frame in which a decision on retaliating would have to be made.

Yeah, it's sure a good thing that, you know, nobody's gotten nervous with nuclear weapons, you know. I mean, it's not as if a Russian colonel dodged his orders to prevent a nuclear war by accident, because he was afraid of an itchy trigger finger and wasn't even sure what was going on himself, or maybe the American lieutenant that effectively hotwired his nuclear missile during the Cuban Missile Crisis(*) so he wouldn't be snagged by any pesky delays. Or, just in those crazy couple of weeks, where were the times when a bear -- the animal, not the Russian -- effectively ordered nuclear-armed planes into the air, some American numbnuts went ahead with a test launch without warning anybody, and the test launch even scared American radar operators, several stations were put on DEFCON-2 without the commanders' knowledge, a training exercise nearly started a nuclear war, ...

So, clearly, it's not as if flinging about ICBMs would cause any additional worries. And if anyone does get nervous -- why, just wait to see if a nuclear weapon goes off before you make any hasty decisions! In the meantime, why not stock up on some SPF 4500 to avoid those pesky sunburns?



* I searched and searched through my old files for the source, but failed miserably. Sorry.