Bush’s Nuclear Dictatorship

by tristero

Billmon’s rightly praised post makes it all too clear why the US press must demand this administration answer the question: Does Bush Plan To Start A Nuclear War?

Billmon’s discussion of the global and strategic consequences of American nuclear tyranny are as trenchant as his comments always are. And his impression of what the “day after” will look like in the US is quite realistic. But by focusing on the largest pictures, Billmon neglected to mention one very plausible and important reaction to an American nuclear war. That is a massive, and rapid, emigration from this country of people with brains, capital, and simple human decency.

Billmon is absolutely right: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the other sociopaths in charge of this country’s foreign policy think nuclear bombs don’t count if they can be described as “tactical.” But many Americans surely know that they do indeed count, they will want nothing to do with a government insane enough to use them, and will get the fuck out of here. And among those people will be hundreds of thousands of scientists and intellectuals that no country can afford to lose and thrive, even a nuclear dictatorship.

UPDATE: Josh Marshall is right. It’s pointless to “engage” the Bush administration. The only thing to do is to hem them in. However…

In this post, Josh failed to mention the mushroom cloud in the room and, in fact, seems to want to avoid bringing it up. That is no mere “particular,” Josh, but a brand new level of insanity. The way to hem them in is by focusing on that insanity, and then push from there. If Josh thinks a successful defense against Bush’s latest madness can be had by ignoring the fact they are brandishing nuclear weapons in the world’s face, then he has learned absolutely nothing from the run-up to the Bush/Iraq War, when Josh himself was far too late in understanding how seriously nuts Bush’s plans were. In 2006, trying to brush anything as criminal as first strike nuclear war under the table is what Bush expects “thoughtful” liberals to do. NO. It has to be rubbed in their faces. Once nuclear weapons are made inconceivable again, then the rest of Bush’s mad scheme can be confronted.

Josh promises a second post on the subject. Let’s hope that in that one he fully understands that a failure explicitly to denounce the nuclear war plans of the Bush administration is not a shrewd tactic but sheer moral cowardice.

UPDATE: A couple of commenters think I’m coming down too hard on Josh’s failure to mention nuclear war in his first post. I certainly hope they are right. But I have this in mind, where Josh cut the neocons some rhetorical slack when he should have simply denounced and ridiculed them. As I wrote then, Josh really isn’t that important in the big scheme of things. However, every little bit helps to shape the debate. As I see it, Bush, et al, is hoping that everyone will be too embarassed to make nuclear war a salient topic until it is too late or think it is merely some kind of perverted saber-rattling that reasonable people should simply ignore.

That is all the reason to rub the mushroom clouds and the horribly mutilated children to come in their faces.