John Carl Baker
@johncarlbaker
nuclear weapons, foreign policy, antiquity, cocktails Words: Nation, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, NK News, US Institute of Peace, New Republic, elsewhere seniores tollunt omnia
Also notable: Graham completely rejected the expert consensus that there are no good military options when it comes to North Korea. The Pentagon, for instance, tellingly treats the DPRK as a deterrence issue.
As you might imagine, this comment raised eyebrows in South Korea - including in the Moon Jae-in gov't, which was already concerned about a potential US-DPRK war. Graham essentially argued that US security required South Korean deaths - and that American lives were more important than allied ones.
I will grant that it's *more likely* that existing defenses could take out DPRK missiles - but this sounds a lot more definitive than the reality, which is that the system has flaws, can be spoofed or overcome, and hasn't been tested under realistic conditions www.newsweek.com/golden-dome-...
Nearly 70% of Americans say war with Iran wasn't worth the costs www.cbsnews.com/news/opinion...
We knew this already, but the nuclear aspects of the MOU are extremely vague - especially when it comes to enrichment. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/u...
Very good piece from @julianborger.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
Sadly, this email had nothing to do with bottom shelf nuclear weapons
The notion of the “lame duck” goes back a long way - e.g. there’s a reference in Livy
Today in weird postcolonial anxiety www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...
Wow this is completely false - there are definitely Minuteman III silos in Colorado