Would the U.S. Drop the Bomb Again?

From  May 19, 2016 2:34 p.m. ET on Wall street jounal
http://www.wsj.com/articles/would-the-u-s-drop-the-bomb-again-1463682867

第１段落
The White House’s recent announcement that President Barack Obama will be the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima has sparked an intense debate among politicians and pundits over what he should or should not say there. The president’s advisers insist that he “will not revisit the decision” to use nuclear weapons on that city in August 1945.

pundit　賢者、学者
has sparked an intense debate among = 〜をめぐる激しい議論を〜の間で巻き起こした（intense 激しい, spark 引き起こす）
will not revisit the decision = 立ち返ることはない
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第２段落
But 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 has found that the American public is surprisingly open to that prospect.

might （instead） ask whether　＝　それよりも〜かどうかを問うべきかもしれない
open to that prospect.　＝　その見込みに開放的だ

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第１３段落　Summary
Would we drop the bomb again? Our surveys can’t say how future presidents and their top advisers 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.

provoke　＝　挑発する
in the crucible of 　〜の厳しい局面で
do reveal something unsettling about ＝〜に対する不安要素を明らかにした。
the immunity of civilians from deliberate attack　＝　意図的な攻撃の対象から民間人を除くこと（immunity from　から免除,　deliberate　故意の）
is unlikely to hold back 抑止力になる可能性は低い（hold back　抑止する）