The Biden administration has made some quiet changes to the country’s policies regarding the use of nuclear weapons, and while they are probably necessary, they are also quite alarming.

The Western Journal noted Friday that the new national defense strategy rejects past limits on the use of such weapons, due to increased threats from two great-power peers, Russia and China.

The document states that “by the 2030s the United States will, for the first time in its history, face two major nuclear powers as strategic competitors and potential adversaries.” Because of that, the U.S. will “maintain a very high bar for nuclear employment” but will no longer rule out retaliating against non-nuclear threats to the homeland. Think massive cyber attack.

The new doctrine is counter to what Joe Biden ran on in 2020, saying that the U.S. should only use its nuclear weapons as a deterrent or in response to a nuclear attack.

Bloomberg News added that the new strategy was developed in coordination with the White House, because it would have to be, considering Biden — even in his brain-addled state — is the commander-in-chief of the military.

The Western Journal added:

The Pentagon added that the geopolitical climate makes previous “no first use” and “sole purpose” policies too dangerous to remain in effect. These policies pose an “unacceptable level of risk in light of the range of non-nuclear capabilities being developed and fielded by competitors that could inflict strategic-level damage” to the U.S.

The 80-page document lays out a major change from decades of nuclear policy and defines China as a “pacing challenge,” while Russia is described as an “acute threat,” according to Time magazine.

“We chose the word ‘acute’ carefully,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a news conference recently, Time noted. “Unlike China, Russia can’t systemically challenge the United States over the long-term, but Russian aggression does pose an immediate and sharp threat to our interests and values.”

The new doctrine also comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin put his nuclear forces on combat alert in February as he was preparing to invade Ukraine.

“It would be the first time that a nuclear weapon has been used in over 70 years, so that certainly has a potential of changing things in the international community,” Austin added. “We’re going to continue to communicate that any type of use of a weapon of that sort, or even the talk of the use of a weapon of that sort, is dangerous and irresponsible.”

China, Austin noted further, is America’s “most consequential strategic competitor for the coming decades” and is “actively seeking to weaken U.S. alliances with Asian partners,” as well as “building up its military and nuclear forces” to target Taiwan as well as all of the Pacific Rim.

He added that China “is the only competitor out there with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the power to do so.”

A senior defense official told reporters, “I do not want to suggest that this is a solved or closed problem and that we now have the answers. This is new territory for us. … How do you successfully fight one adversary while having enough reserve to hold the other [at] bay?”

The change in doctrine also comes amid a weakening U.S. military under Biden.