That’s what Air Force Secretary Michael Donley told the Air Force Association’s annual gathering Monday. I’m sure his statement has nothing to do with the fact that his service owns two — bombers and land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles — of the triad’s three legs (the Navy’s submarine-launched missiles being the third). And that the Air Force’s two legs are the most vulnerable of the trio.
The triad is a Cold War construct that has outlived its usefulness and now only offers illusory hedges against Strangelovian fantasy attacks at a cost of billions of dollars annually. It would be bracing for someone in a position of authority to tell the weapons-peddlers at the AFA gathering that the Cold War is over, and that an economically ailing America could do with a nuclear dyad. That would be a refreshingly rare example of leadership. After all, even a fool only needs suspenders and a belt to keep his pants from falling down.
