Another installment of the best (and only) regular ACW post!
The White House | “…varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used [sarin] on a small scale…” Joseph Holliday says that Assad has outfoxed Obama.
Nature | From prison in Iran, a graduate student writes that he refused to work on a laser-based enrichment program meant for military purposes.
Yonhap News | North Korea has moved two Scud missile launchers to its east coast. Should we be afraid?
38 North | Still no missile tests, but North Korea’s bellicose rhetoric keeps escalating. Byung Chul Lee makes the case for engagement. Related: Jeffrey Lewis makes the case for taking the nuclear threat at face value. Elbridge Colby makes the case for reasserting U.S. nuclear deterrence.
The Sun | Where Kim Jong-un learned theatrics.
CTBTO | Radioactivity detected after North Korea’s February 12th nuclear test confirms that the test occurred. Time to update this website?
The New York Times | James Acton asks, is China changing its position on nuclear weapons? No, says Yao Yunzhu. No, says M. Taylor Fravel. No, says Gregory Kulacki, and let’s stop nagging them about it. (Acton responds to Yao and Fravel. Rachel Oswald reviews the debate.)
New Statesman | Kate Hudson of the UK’s Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament thinks the U.S. will make Britain give up its nukes. Maybe as soon as the U.S. finishes cutting a leg off the Triad?
Washington Post | Champion of fiscal restraint Lindsey Graham (here is his voting record) is up in arms about another spending cut. No history of pork there. But that’d be great.
We hope you enjoyed this installment of FYRP.
Shorter Sen. Graham: Show me the Moniz.
It seems like holds have replaced earmarks. Were earmarks really so bad?
Thanks for doing this, Harry. I’m only surprised you didn’t pick up on the US-ROK 123 extension. That seems like the big nuclear news of the week.
ROK Section 123: Didn’t they just kick the can 2 years down the road while they wait for DPRK to settle out? This seems like the most politically expedient think to do as it leaves all options open for future anything and everything (cooperation, negotiation, nuclear defense pack, nuclear weapons capability, etc etc etc).
It seems to me that many politicians like to hit the easy button. “That was easy”.
Am I missing something here?
I think it’s news that no new agreement could be reached. Now the U.S. administration will have to do some heavy lifting in Congress just for the sake of punting. Gee, I wonder what price Sen. Graham will charge to let the two-year extension through?
Maybe I shouldn’t give him ideas.
Hey, if nothing else, this is a fine excuse to point out that the Chosun Ilbo called Robert Einhorn “the nonproliferation Taliban”:
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2013/04/22/us-attitude-on-nuclear-agreement-no-way-to-treat-an-ally-chosun-ilbo/
Thank you for FYRP section.
I don’t know if this is the place to ask: could blogging about missiles get resuscitated?