HOME / the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

Katha Pollitt and Andrew Sullivan

Re: Dr. Strangelove

Posted Wednesday, May 13, 1998, at 5:18 PM ET

Dear Dr. Strangelove,

Sure, the world will be much safer when all 150 plus nations have nuclear bombs than it is right now. Why didn't I see that? Must be the stuffy air down here in the shelter.

I don't want to give the impression, by the way, that nuclear weapons are only dangerous when proliferation includes "rogue nations" who don't care about their own populations. After all, our own Herman Kahn put forward the idea of "sustainability," by which he meant the US should be willing to accept 30,000,000 casualties as the price of a nuclear exchange.

You sound to me like those NRA people who argue that the country will be safe when everybody carries a gun all the time. In fact, I think you are pulling my leg. I'll bet you contribute to SANE/FREEZE under a pseudonym and have a secret crush on Jonathan Schell.

More soon,
Katha

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Katha Pollitt is a columnist at The Nation. Andrew Sullivan is a senior editor at the New Republic.
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