Biden’s Nuclear Morality No Deterrent?

McGurn’s “Biden’s Nuclear Weapons Misfire” is a sobering reminder there’s little incentive for non-nuclear countries to stay so, especially so long as No. 46’s policy is based on moral “right” rather than military “might.”

The WSJ columnist’s assessment is also more than a little frightening, if you consider some of the loose cannons of the world no longer feeling “deterred” by a preacher rather than teacher in the White House, that is, like the “undemocratic” leaders of North Korea or Iran. What’s more, McGurn warns, even our allied neighbors in those regions can’t be expected to sit idly by & adhere to the much-ballyhooed Non-Proliferation Treaty, while their existence is being threatened by enemies with a newly-acquired nuclear capability. “This is exactly the dynamic now with Taiwan,” McGurn argues. Were Taiwan, for example, to develop a nuke to fend off threats, nuclear or otherwise, from China or North Korea, “it would have huge ripple effects throughout Asia. Japan would probably develop one soon after and we could quickly see a nuclear arms race in the Pacific. If Mr. Xi got wind of a Taiwanese bomb, it could easily lead him to give the order to invade.”

Of course, there’s a lot of “what ifs” in McGurn’s analysis, but it’s worth noting (as he does) that similar escalating nuclear scenarios could be played out in the Middle East as well as Eastern Europe. That’s because, as McGurn opines, “neither friend nor foe will forgo nuclear weapons because of America’s moral example.”

Davd Soul