Experts push back on Trump administration’s call to respond to cyberattacks with nukes
The U.S. might consider using nuclear weapons in response to a cyberattack that killed civilians and destroyed infrastructure, a defense official said Friday after rolling out a new Trump administration policy. The new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters at the Pentagon, states that “in the context of a non-nuclear attack against the U.S. or our allies that was strategic in nature, that involved substantial impacts to our infrastructure or people, we would consider that context in evaluating an appropriate response that might involve nuclear weapons.” Shanahan also insisted that the new policy, although more explicit about the kind of non-nuclear attack that might trigger a nuclear response, did not lower the threshold for the U.S. use of atomic weapons and did not change U.S. policy. “It’s been the long-standing policy of the U.S. to maintain some ambiguity around the circumstances under which we would […]
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