The U.S. says it can answer cyberattacks with nuclear weapons. That’s lunacy.

Over the July 4 weekend, the Russian-based cybercriminal organization REvil claimed credit for hacking into as many as 1,500 companies. In May, another cybercriminal group, DarkSide shut down most of the operations of Colonial Pipeline. These incidents were bad enough. But imagine a cyberattack that turned off the power at U.S. hospitals, wreaked havoc on air-traffic-control systems and shut down the electrical grid in major cities. Under current U.S. nuclear doctrine, developed during the Trump administration, the president would be given the military option to launch nuclear weapons at Russia, China or North Korea if that country was determined to be behind such an attack.

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