Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

The Race to Destruction
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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system would be well-advised to accept the worst-case analysis and
take this possibility seriously. This combination of rational expectations
may well enhance the probability of a first strike, perhaps by the state
possessing the system on the assumption that a retaliatory strike could
be blocked, but more likely by the state lacking the system, which
might, in a time of crisis, fear the loss of its deterrent capacity. The
greater the confidence in the reliability of the system, the greater its
contribution to the likelihood of a first strike in times of crisis. Thus the
argument against the program on the grounds that it will not work is
misconceived. Nor does the system make sense as a way of defending
the land-based deterrent, given the fact that the other elements of the
“triad” (submarines and bombers) provide more than an adequate
deterrent. It is difficult to conceive of any security reason for the system;
in fact, it would harm US security, more so to the extent that it appears
reliable. We will see directly that there are further compelling reasons to
doubt that security concerns were a factor motivating its development.
At the UN, “the United States has been almost alone in opposing
successive resolutions calling for a comprehensive test ban—resolutions
which have received greater support from the United Nations throughout
its history than any other disarmament issue”; “During the 1984 session
of the General Assembly the United States and all or several of its NATO
allies found themselves in a small minority voting ‘no’ or abstaining on
resolutions calling for a nuclear weapons freeze, prevention of an arms
race in outer space, and prohibition of the use of nuclear weapons,”
among other disarmament proposals, all backed by the USSR, voting
with the majority. The result is “a growing alienation of the United
States from the mainstream of international opinion.” 26 Diana
Johnstone, whose in-depth coverage of European affairs is unparalleled
in the US press, reports from Geneva that the Swedish chairperson of
the first review of the nuclear weapons non-proliferation Treaty told a