Your June 20 editorial “Redirecting the nuclear cross hairs” has some useful things to say about directing U.S. and Chinese missiles away from each other’s territory. But it then veers off into unjustified criticism of the principle of no-first-use of nuclear weapons.
In the 53 years since Nagasaki, the world has sought to build and maintain a psychological firewall between nuclear and conventional weapons. To imply, as your editorial does, that Iraq’s use of chemical or biological weapons would be met with nuclear retaliation is to weaken the restraints that have served us so well for so long.
America, in particular, faces no threat it cannot handle with conventional weapons. We should guard, then, against loose talk that appears to legitimize the use of nuclear weapons by others.
