Would the U.S. Drop the Bomb Again?

Would the U.S. Drop the Bomb Again? 

Scott D. Sagan, B. A. Valentino - The Wall Street Journal

http://www.wsj.com/articles/would-the-u-s-drop-the-bomb-again-1463682867

... The controversy has focused too narrowly on historical questions. We might instead ask whether the U.S., in similar circumstances today, would drop the bomb again. Our own research found that the American public is surprisingly open to that prospect ... Would we drop the bomb again? Our surveys can't say how future presidents and their top advisors would weigh their options. But they do reveal something unsettling about the instincts of the U.S. public: when provoked, we don't seem to consider the use of nuclear weapons a taboo, and our commitment to the immunity of civilians from deliberate attack in wartime, even with vast casualties, is shallow. Today, as in 1945, the U.S. public is unlikely to hold back a president who might consider using nuclear weapons in the crucible of war.