X-Message-Number: 18739
From: "Mark Plus" <>
Subject: Bush Administration preparing to use nukes?
Date: Sat, 09 Mar 2002 13:26:06 -0800

You know, if you combine this story with the one from the other day about 
the activation of a "Shadow Government" hidden in a bunker somewhere, and 
it's starting to look as if the Bush Administration is planning on 
initiating or provoking a nuclear war. -- Mark Plus

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-030902bombs.story

U.S. Works Up Plan for Using Nuclear Arms
Military: Administration, in a secret report, calls for a strategy against 
at least seven nations: China, Russia, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya and 
Syria.
By PAUL RICHTER
Times Staff Writer

March 9 2002

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has directed the military to prepare 
contingency plans to use nuclear weapons against at least seven countries 
and to build smaller nuclear weapons for use in certain battlefield 
situations, according to a classified Pentagon report obtained by the Los 
Angeles Times.

The secret report, which was provided to Congress on Jan. 8, says the 
Pentagon needs to be prepared to use nuclear weapons against China, Russia, 
Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Libya and Syria. It says the weapons could be used 
in three types of situations: against targets able to withstand nonnuclear 
attack; in retaliation for attack with nuclear, biological or chemical 
weapons; or "in the event of surprising military developments."

A copy of the report was obtained by defense analyst and Times contributor 
William Arkin. His column on the contents appears in Sunday's editions.

Officials have long acknowledged that they had detailed nuclear plans for an 
attack on Russia. However, this "Nuclear Posture Review" apparently marks 
the first time that an official list of potential target countries has come 
to light, analysts said. Some predicted the disclosure would set off strong 
reactions from governments of the target countries.

"This is dynamite," said Joseph Cirincione, a nuclear arms expert at the 
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. "I can imagine 
what these countries are going to be saying at the U.N." Arms control 
advocates said the report's directives on development of smaller nuclear 
weapons could signal that the Bush administration is more willing to 
overlook a long-standing taboo against the use of nuclear weapons except as 
a last resort. They warned that such moves could dangerously destabilize the 
world by encouraging other countries to believe that they, too, should 
develop weapons.

"They're trying desperately to find new uses for nuclear weapons, when their 
uses should be limited to deterrence," said John Isaacs, president of the 
Council for a Livable World. "This is very, very dangerous talk . . . Dr. 
Strangelove is clearly still alive in the Pentagon."

But some conservative analysts insisted that the Pentagon must prepare for 
all possible contingencies, especially now, when dozens of countries, and 
some terrorist groups, are engaged in secret weapon development programs.

They argued that smaller weapons have an important deterrent role because 
many aggressors might not believe that the U.S. forces would use 
multi-kiloton weapons that would wreak devastation on surrounding territory 
and friendly populations.

"We need to have a credible deterrence against regimes involved in 
international terrorism and development of weapons of mass destruction," 
said Jack Spencer, a defense analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation 
in Washington. He said the contents of the report did not surprise him and 
represent "the right way to develop a nuclear posture for a post-Cold War 
world."

A spokesman for the Pentagon, Richard McGraw, declined to comment because 
the document is classified.

Congress requested the reassessment of the U.S. nuclear posture in September 
2000. The last such review was conducted in 1994 by the Clinton 
administration. The new report, signed by Secretary of Defense Donald H. 
Rumsfeld, is now being used by the U.S. Strategic Command to prepare a 
nuclear war plan.

Bush administration officials have publicly provided only sketchy details of 
the nuclear review. They have publicly emphasized the parts of the policy 
suggesting that the administration wants to reduce reliance on nuclear 
weapons.

Since the Clinton administration's review is also classified, no specific 
contrast can be drawn. However, analysts portrayed this report as 
representing a break with earlier policy.

U.S. policymakers have generally indicated that the United States would not 
use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states unless they were allied with 
nuclear powers. They have left some ambiguity about whether the United 
States would use nuclear weapons in retaliation after strikes with chemical 
or nuclear weapons.

The report says the Pentagon should be prepared to use nuclear weapons in an 
Arab-Israeli conflict, in a war between China and Taiwan, or in an attack 
from North Korea on the south. They might also become necessary in an attack 
by Iraq on Israel or another neighbor, it said.

The report says Russia is no longer officially an "enemy." Yet it 
acknowledges that the huge Russian arsenal, which includes about 6,000 
deployed warheads and perhaps 10,000 smaller "theater" nuclear weapons, 
remains of concern.

Pentagon officials have said publicly that they were studying the need to 
develop theater nuclear weapons, designed for use against specific targets 
on a battlefield, but had not committed themselves to that course.

Officials have often spoken of the advantages of using nuclear weapons to 
destroy the deep tunnel and cave complexes that many regimes have been 
building, especially since the Persian Gulf War of 1991. Nuclear weapons 
give off powerful shock waves that can crush structures deep in the Earth, 
they point out.

Officials argue that large nuclear arms have so many destructive side 
effects, from blast to heat and radiation, that they become 
"self-deterring." They contend the Pentagon needs "full spectrum 
deterrence"--that is, a full range of weapons that potential enemies believe 
might be used against them.

The Pentagon was actively involved in planning for use of tactical nuclear 
weapons as recently as the 1970s. But it has moved away from them in the 
last two decades.

Analysts said the report's reference to "surprising military developments" 
referred to the Pentagon's fears that a rogue regime or terrorist group 
might suddenly unleash a wholly unknown weapon that was difficult to counter 
with the conventional U.S. arsenal.

The administration has proposed cutting the offensive nuclear arsenal by 
about two-thirds, to between 1,700 and 2,200 missiles, within 10 years. 
Officials have also said they want to use precision guided conventional 
munitions in some missions that might have previously been accomplished with 
nuclear arms.

But critics said the report contradicts suggestions the Bush administration 
wants to cut the nuclear role.

"This clearly makes nuclear weapons a tool for fighting a war, rather than 
deterring them," said Cirincione.

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