Pence: Maybe We'll Arm Space Force with Nukes

Yesterday, Donald Trump vowed to increase the United States' nuclear capacity and threatened to deploy those nukes against foreign adversaries if he deemed it necessary.

Today, Mike Pence suggested that the Trump Regime might arm its planned Space Force with nuclear weapons. Robert Costa at the Washington Post reports:

Vice President Pence on Tuesday declined to rule out the idea of deploying nuclear weapons in space, saying the current ban on their use is "in the interest of every nation" but the issue should be decided on "the principle that peace comes through strength."

"What we need to do is make sure that we provide for the common defense of the people of the United States of America and that's the president's determination here," Pence said in an interview with The Washington Post, when asked if nuclear weapons should be banned from orbit.

Pence added, "What we want to do is continue to advance the principle that peace comes through strength."

The new positioning comes as the Trump administration moves to potentially exit a major nuclear weapons pact with Russia and possibly bolster U.S. military operations in the heavens by forming a "Space Force."

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty outlawed weapons of mass destruction from space, including nuclear weapons, and stopped the arms race between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union from entering space.

...Pence announced in August that the administration hopes to establish Space Force as the sixth branch of the U.S. military as soon as 2020, the first since the Air Force was formed after World War II.

In addition to the general "WHAT THE FUCK IS EVEN HAPPENING" of this item, two things to note:

1. "Peace comes through strength" has been used to justify all sorts of things that are not really about strength at all, but about fear and malice. This is a prime example of that dynamic.

2. Pence, who has had designs on the presidency his entire life, just asserted that the defense of the nation and its people is exclusively "the president's determination."

That is not accurate. (At least, it's not supposed to be.)

It's chilling any time someone implies the president has unilateral decision-making about defense; it's especially so when the person making the implication aspires to the presidency himself — and is the proverbial one heartbeat away.