Israel Matzav: Obama's nuclear posture review brings war closer

Obama's nuclear posture review brings war closer

Although Secretary of Defense Gates won some aspects of the nuclear posture review, the aspects where President Obama won out degrade the United States' deterrence capability.

The problem is the fact that Obama has tampered with a simple, effective nuclear policy that keeps the bad guys in check. That is, use a WMD of any sort on the U.S. or her allies and the response will be apocalyptic in its devastation. That doesn't necessarily have to be true, it just has be to perceived as true by potential adversaries. Deterrence is predicated on fear of force, not force itself. It's classic Sun Tzu -- "to subdue your enemies without fighting is supreme excellence."

In the 2010 NPR, the White House unnecessarily tinkered with that proven policy -- and for what? They believe it will offer the carrot needed for Iran to sign the NPT, open its enrichment facilities to inspectors, and join the community of responsible nations. That's pure fantasy. There's no indication that U.S. nuclear policy has had a shred of influence on rogue states, nor will it ever. Iran will not abandon a program that has cost them billions of dollars simply because Obama pinky swears that he won't drop the bomb on them if the mullahs play nice.

It would have been better for the U.S. to preserve the ambiguity in our nuclear usage policy, and thus kept our enemies guessing. Fear of violence, more so than violence itself, has helped prevent World War III for six decades. If Obama continues to unbalance that successful deterrence equation, the consequences could be dire.

Obama's entire course of action with Iran since the day he took office leaves open only two possibilities. Either he just doesn't get the concept of deterrence or he wants Iran to be able to deter other countries. Neither portends positively for the future.

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Israel Matzav: Obama's nuclear posture review brings war closer