Having already learned to love the bomb

L Dean Webb, writing in Sobaka:

President Bush is going to sign a new guideline on the United States' first-use doctrines. Rather than rely on massive retaliation, Bush is going to make massive pre-emptive strike the new US nuclear weapons usage baseline. As General "Buck"" Turgidson said in Dr. Strangelove, "Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks."

With this strategy, the US could unilaterally justify a pre-emptive strike on a nuclear facility on just the suspicion that it was up to no good. It could either be very accurate at curbing a nation intent on no good, or make a grave mistake resulting in a horrific mass-murdering.

All the same, once the site got nuked, there wouldn't be any way to check to see if it was up to no good. Nuclear explosives are a helluva way to tamper with crime scene evidence. Not even the top talent on them CSI shows could do much with a crater from a nuke. It'd be a matter of faith that evil was underway at that site, and faith is something the Bush camp has in plenitude.