A new kind of deterrence Security * The $55 billion we spend annually on our nuclear deterrence force is useless confronting terrorists. OTHER VIEWS.(Editorial)

Byline: Bob Graham and Jim Talent

As part of the Nuclear Posture Review, national security, intelligence and defense officials are in a heated debate within the Obama administration regarding the purpose of America's nuclear arsenal: whether the sole purpose of our nuclear force is to deter nuclear attack or whether it is the primary purpose. If it is the primary purpose, then the nuclear force would also be a deterrent against a biological attack by a nation-state.

This deterrent is an extension of the Cold War policy of calculated ambiguity. In the early stages of the Cold War, when both the U.S. and Soviet Union arsenals included nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, deterrence was based on response with like weapons - a chemical response to a chemical attack, a …