Fellow citizen Joe Douglas has regaled us with his incongruous world view including the claim that nuclear deterrence against the USSR (or its successor state Russia) is an outdated model. I guess he didn’t get the memo from President Obama in the National Security Strategy, issued in February 2015. Namely, “No threat poses as grave a danger to our security and well-being as the potential use of nuclear weapons and materials by irresponsible states or terrorists.” Nobel Peace Laureate Obama goes on to declare, “As long as nuclear weapons exist, the United States must invest the resources necessary to maintain — without testing — a safe, secure, and effective nuclear deterrent that preserves strategic stability.”

Citizen Douglas and his personal freedoms are safe from Russian nuclear aggression due to the nuclear capabilities of our Navy and Air Force. On page 2 of the National Security Strategy, POTUS Obama states “we will prioritize efforts that address the top strategic risks to our interests.” “Catastrophic attack on the U.S. homeland” tops the current list of eight strategic risks.

Rather than protesting the abrupt end of World War II by nuclear attacks that on net saved more lives — Japanese and American — than were lost, Douglas might redirect his angst and focus upon Russian aggression from not-a-Nobel-Laureate Putin and the ongoing lack of transparency into the methods to monitor the compliance of Iran with the agreement to stop development of nuclear weapons there. Sound judgment characteristic of sanity is not displayed when one underestimates Russian aggression or overstates Iran’s peaceful motives.