Hawk
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Israel, The Samson Option and the Question I Cannot Stop Asking
Posted
July 20, 2026
Views
2,328
Likes
485
Comments
87
Engagement
24.57%
July 20, 2026
2,328
485
87
24.57%
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5:42Now PlayingIsrael, The Samson Option and the Question I Cannot Stop Asking
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With the war in Iran and Russia's war in Ukraine both grinding on, Hawk keeps returning to an uncomfortable question: what would it take to push Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, or Vladimir Putin toward actually using nuclear weapons? He walks through who holds them and who does not, including the history of Ukraine surrendering the Soviet arsenal on its soil after 1991 in exchange for security guarantees.
He lays out Israel's undeclared arsenal and the Samson Option, the last-resort massive-retaliation doctrine named in Seymour Hersh's 1991 book, and revisits Trump's first-term remarks questioning the point of having nuclear weapons if they are never used. The framing is not sensational, it is a genuine attempt to understand the restraint that has held for 81 years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only wartime use of these weapons by any nation.
The spine of the video is a Tom Nichols essay in The Atlantic arguing that nuclear weapons buy deterrence and little else. Nichols points to Iran and Ukraine as proof that nuclear powers can inflict enormous damage on smaller opponents and still fail to achieve their goals. Hawk's closing worry is what happens when leaders stop pursuing victory and start pursuing something closer to annihilation.
#TomNichols #TheAtlantic #NuclearWeapons #Iran #Ukraine #Russia #Israel #DonaldTrump #VladimirPutin #BenjaminNetanyahu #SamsonOption #Deterrence #ForeignPolicy #SeymourHersh #NationalSecurity #War #Politics #News #CurrentEvents #Hawk
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