By Michael Mazza
Last Tuesday, U.S. Congressman Hank Johnson and his adviser Jonathan Ossoff criticized what they described as a “dangerous provision” in this year’s house version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The provision, which calls for the Obama administration to consider deploying additional conventional and nuclear forces to the Western Pacific, isn’t nearly as “dangerous” as Johnson and Ossoff make it out to be. It is, instead, a reasonable effort to pursue U.S. policy goals in Northeast Asia.
Johnson and Ossoff don’t give it a fair shake. For starters, one can’t help but wonder if they have actually read the provision, whose language, which they describe as “Dr. Strangelove-esque,” is anything but. Congress, the provision reads (PDF), “encourages further steps, including such steps to deploy additional conventional forces of the United States and redeploy tactical nuclear weapons to the Western Pacific region.”
And what would the NDAA, should it become law, actually require (PDF)?
Read the full story at The Diplomat