No Nukes? No Way!

The Drudgereport has what seems to be a disturbing headline:

NO NUKES: EVEN IN SELF-DEFENSE!

implying a change in policy regarding the use of nuclear weapons. From the linked New York Times article:

For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons or launched a crippling cyberattack.

I beg to differ, and I have some personal knowledge of this subject. First, we will still use nukes against anyone who uses nukes against us, so we aren't giving up nukes in self defense. Further, the non-retaliation with nukes has been the policy of the United States for a long time; because the language of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NNPT) requires this. The treaty makes no mention of an exception to its precepts with regards to biological or chemical weapons. Perhaps it is news because we announced this publicly, but it is not really a change. I hope conservative commentators don't get worked up and display their ignorance (I'm thinking Sean Hannity).

HotAir has some reasoned debate, good for them. When you think about the countries that worry us over chem/bio (Iran, North Korea), they are probably also the countries who are in actual or technical violation of the NNPT, so if they use chem/bio weapons we are still free to turn rain some mushroom clouds on their critical military infrastructure.

24 Empty Missile Tubes, a Mushroom Cloud, Now, it's Miller Time!