Confusing, and VERY scary....

The Belmont Club - By the shadow of our hand:
The Guardian describes an extraordinary manifesto authored 'by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists ... following discussions with active commanders and policymakers, many of whom are unable or unwilling to publicly air their views. It has been presented to the Pentagon in Washington and to Nato's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, over the past 10 days. The proposals are likely to be discussed at a Nato summit in Bucharest in April.' The gist of the proposal is that the West should stand ready to conduct a pre-emptive nuclear strike against 'key threats' like 'political fanaticism and religious fundamentalism' and 'international terrorism, organised crime' which are on the brink of acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
What will likely happen is that the West will be left waiting for the descent of the first nuclear blow in order to generate the political capital to strike back, and then in the only way they can -- with atomic fires -- in place of the men who could not be mustered to defend it under the galling fire of their critics. Having refused to fight limited wars to preserve the peace, the West may now be left with threatening global catastrophe to preserve itself. The price of appeasement has always been high. It's always possible to kick a live grenade down the road as you walk down it. Some may see that as an advantage, but it isn't really.
Read it all...and wonder.