Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.
Yesterday, I went on Judge Napolitano’s show, and we talked about several challenging issues. Among them, the Trump administration’s military coup in Venezuela and the illegality of the same, the difficulty of disobeying illegal orders (and of distinguishing what is legal under pressure and within a hierarchical organization), colossal spending on the U.S. military, and the ongoing threat of nuclear armageddon, even as the “glitter” of nuclear weapons continues to enthrall, appealing to technical arrogance while offering illusions of illimitable power, as Freeman Dyson once explained.
A clarification: I mentioned in the interview that there are more than 5000 nuclear weapons and warheads around the world; I should have said that’s the number in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Russia has an equivalent number, China a much smaller but growing arsenal, and other countries like Britain, France, India, and Pakistan have their own. The total global arsenal is roughly 13,000 nuclear weapons, which I suppose illustrates our collective death wish (though we’ll take most of life on earth with us if we ever use these weapons).
Many thanks to Judge Napolitano for being willing to address such serious issues, issues that are rarely discussed in the U.S. mainstream media today.
