[Peace-discuss] Another defeat for non-proliferation: Senate approves funding new US nukes

[patton paul]

Mixed Messages: U.S. Lowers Its Own Nuclear Standard

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News from the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
For Immediate Release - September 16, 2003 Contact: Molly Pickett
202-546-0795 ext. 119

The Senate today voted 53 to 41 to retain funding for research on new
types of nuclear weapons and speed up the nations ability to conduct a
nuclear test. An amendment to the Energy and Water Development
Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2004, offered by Senators Feinstein and
Kennedy, would have stripped funding for research on low-yield nuclear
weapons and a robust nuclear earth penetrator and delayed test readiness
and pit facility development. By tabling the amendment, Senators failed to
prevent the Bush Administration from ramping up the U.S. nuclear weapons
program and sending a mixed message to nations around the world.

It is hypocritical that, within days of pressuring the international
community to help curbtnuclear programs in Iran and North Korea, the U.S.
government is continuing to push forward with new elements of its own
program, said Molly Pickett, director of the Non-Proliferation Project at
the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington. This
policy is not reflective of a country committed to preventing reliance on
nuclear weapons.

Arguing that the new funds allow only for research and do not fund any
kind of development of new nuclear weapons, supporters have set the United
States on a path unprecedented since World War II. Proponents also claim
the funding reflects the current international security environment, which
requires an unconventional deterrent against new threats. They add that
research on new weapons is vital to keeping U.S. scientists at the
forefront of technology and aware of the capabilities that may be
developed by hostile states and terrorist groups.

However, in order for a new generation of U.S. nuclear weapons to serve as
a deterrent, the weapons would eventually have to be developed. It is also
the new international security environment, in which terrorist groups and
hostile regimes pose tremendous threats, that makes a move like this so
dangerous. Rogue states such as North Korea have become so wary of the
Bush Administrations nuclear posture that development of nuclear programs,
for the sake of security, has become their foremost priority.

Foes of the United States will not look at this vote and see funding for
new nuclear weapons and accelerated test readiness as a research exercise,
Pickett said. They will see it as an aggressive move by an already
dominant military power to return to an age of nuclear advancement. The
effects on world-wide nonproliferation efforts could be disastrous.

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__________________________________________________________________
Dr. Paul Patton
Research Scientist
Beckman Institute  Rm 3027  405 N. Mathews St.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  Urbana, Illinois 61801
work phone: (217)-265-0795   fax: (217)-244-5180
home phone: (217)-328-4064
homepage: http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~ppatton/index.html

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the
source of all true art and science."
-Albert Einstein
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