Ok...let's end the hysteria for a minute. From one who was in the program for about 17 years of his military career...here are a few words to calm the jangled nerves:
1. Nuclear weapons are really just another weapon in the inventory of several nations. If one is deemed the right choice in taking out a specific target, then it will be used.
2. Nuclear weapons were used absolutely correctly in WW II. Had we not used them and been forced to invade Japan, the casualties on both sides would have been staggering. In spite of what the liberal media and history revisionists have tried to do over the years, the facts stand: Good estimates of allied casualties exceed 1.5 million and the Japanese estimates are around 20 million. Japan would have ceased to exist as a nation state. For further reference, I recommend a great book by Richard B. Frank called "Downfall".
3. Nuclear weapons come in many various sizes and targeting applications. Typical tactical (battlefield weapons) are usually a few kilotons to a couple of hundred kt in yield and used against enemies in the field or a military installation. Tacnucs can be delivered by aircraft, cruise missiles, or artillery rockets or tube weapons. We even have a bunker buster nuc that burrows deeply into the ground before detonating. Strategic nucs typically are city busters. You would see them delivered by land and sub launched intercontinental ballistic missiles, large bomber aircraft, and possibly cruise missiles.
4. All nucs in the US inventory are controlled by the President and the National Command Authority. No one person, including the President, can unilaterally cause the launch of a nuclear weapon.
5. In 1991 Bush 41 ordered that all tacnucs be removed from all front line units, ships and aircraft squadrons and retuned to stateside depots. To the best of my knowledge, those that have not been permanently deactivated remain in storage.
6. Each Ohio class sub carries 24 Trident missiles with a max load of 10 individually targetable re-entry vehicles...in other words each boat is capable of launching up to 240 city-buster strategic nucs.
7. Target-to-weapon pairing is underway right now in the various war-fighting centers of the United States military. If our NCA deems it necessary to nuc enemy forces to protect our Constitution and our way of life, then they WILL do so.
We are now engaged in what will most likely be a long and bloody war. It may very well take every weapon in our inventory to achieve the ultimate victory. As much as I loathe the thought of using a nuc, to save my country and my family I would do so in a New York second. The bad guys better wake up and realize that fact too...because they just get a really bright and hot surprise one day. I firmly believe we are totally justified in using all our arrows in this one. Any who are not in agreement, just remember, Pearl Harbor=2870 casualties; Sept. 11, 2001 at least twice that number.
One final thought...does anybody out there in cyber-land think for one second that if Saddam or Osama or any of those raghead bastards had a nuc, they wouldn't use it on us? Want to wait until they get one...or an anthax bomb...or a nerve gas bomb??? Hmmmmm? Not me. Use 'em if you got 'em.
Aim small...miss small.