U.S. Mulls Nuclear Options
L.A. Times reports on Bush administration directive
WASHINGTON, March 9 - Citing a classified Pentagon report, the Los Angeles
Times reported Saturday that The Bush administration has told the Defense
Department to prepare, on a contingency basis, plans to use nuclear weapons
against at least seven countries.
THE MILITARY was also directed to build smaller nuclear weapons for use in
certain battlefield situations, the newspaper reported. The countries named
in the secret report - provided to Congress on Jan. 8 - were China, Russia,
Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Libya and Syria, the Times reported.
The three contingencies listed for possible use of the weapons were "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," according to the newspaper.
"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," The Times said.
"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 told the Times.
"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.," he told the
newspaper.
Arms control advocates told the Times "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.
However, conservative analysts said that the Pentagon must prepare for all
possibilities as other countries, and some terrorist groups, are engaged in
weapons development programs. Their position was that smaller weapons have a
deterrent role because rogue nations or terrorists might not believe that
the United States would use more destructive multi-kiloton weapons, the
Times reported.
Jack Spencer, a defense analyst at the Heritage Foundation in Washington,
told the newspaper 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."
The Times reported that a copy of the report was obtained by defense analyst
and Times contributor William Arkin. The Pentagon refused to comment.
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