[Peace] FW: wilpf-news The Guardian: US nuclear strategy threatens the world

[Marianne Brun]

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Von: WILPF UN <wilpfun at igc.org>
Antworten an: wilpfun at igc.org
Datum: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 16:18:51 -0800
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Betreff: wilpf-news The Guardian: US nuclear strategy threatens the world

To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited site,
go to http://www.guardian.co.uk

Madness in the making
US nuclear strategy threatens the world
Leader
Friday January 10 2003
The Guardian


The possibility that the US will resort to the use of nuclear weapons in a
future conflict is greater now than at any time since the darkest days of
the cold war. This growing danger does not principally arise from old
fears about the threat from strategic nuclear missiles. Although the US,
Russia, China, France and Britain retain such weapons, their overall
numbers have been reduced. Rather, the 21st century's own looming nuclear
nightmare has two other main causes. One is the US development of new
generations of theatre or battlefield nuclear weapons and an increasing
willingness by the Bush administration to use them pre-emptively. The
other is the proliferation of nuclear weapons-related technology and the
linked acquisition by "rogue states" and international terrorist groups of
other relatively less potent weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical
and biological agents.

Under President George Bush, the US is progressively lowering the
threshold for nuclear war. Its national security strategy declares: "We
must be prepared to stop rogue states and their terrorist clients before
they are able to threaten or use WMD... To forestall or prevent such
hostile acts the US will, if necessary, act pre-emptively." The national
strategy to combat weapons of mass destruction goes further: "The US
reserves the right to respond with overwhelming force, including through
resort to all our options, to the use of WMD against the US, our forces
abroad, our friends and allies."

What this means in practice is chillingly clear. Any attack on US
interests, however limited, from whatever source, and anywhere in the
world, involving any form of chemical, biological or radiological weaponry
could trigger nuclear retaliation. Increasingly the US is also assuming
the right to decree who may or may not possess such weapons.

Having raised its declared annual defence budget by $60bn to about $360bn,
the US is now pouring money into new nuclear weapons programmes set out in
last year's (highly classified) nuclear posture review and over which
Congress appears to have little effective oversight. One key part of the
Pentagon's "limited nuclear options capability" programmes is the "robust
nuclear earth penetrator" for destroying underground targets. Other
projects in the pipeline include an "enhanced radiation weapon" that
supposedly incinerates toxic agents (and anything else in the area), space
control satellites and a "worldwide nuclear survivable communications
system".

By one estimate, the US is now spending 45% more on "nuclear weapons
activities" than at the end of the cold war. Meanwhile, in order to test
its new weapons, the Bush administration is preparing to end its de facto
compliance with the comprehensive test ban treaty. Having abrogated the
anti-ballistic missile treaty, it is now also planning a global missile
defence shield that by protecting its nuclear arsenal from attack will
render its use more feasible.

That this US nuclear build-up is massively destabilising should be
obvious. Faced by what the US is doing, nuclear states such as India,
Pakistan, Israel or North Korea are less likely to surrender their
weapons. Iran, Brazil, South Africa or Japan, all potentially
nuclear-capable, may abandon the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (which
the US itself ignores). Other non-nuclear states, their safety from
nuclear attack no longer guaranteed, may resort to enhanced forms of WMD
and missiles for self-defence. From here, as the pillars of international
arms control crash one by one into the sea, it is but a short step to
uncontrolled, global mass production and proliferation, particularly into
terrorist hands, of the very chemical and biological arms the US (and
Britain) most fear.

This is madness in the making. It is mutually assured destruction by other
means. Only a uniform, enforceable, collective, global approach to
non-proliferation, applying equally to all, can curb the overall WMD
menace. Through verifiable treaties, well-funded inspection regimes,
effective technology and fissile material controls, containment,
deterrence and sanctions, there is a chance of success. But if any of this
is to work, the US cannot be an exception to the rules. It must lead by
example, in particular by ending its pursuit of an ever more dangerous
nuclear dominance. Maintaining double standards and singling out states
such as Iraq is not only hypocritical; it is also ultimately doomed to
failure.

In this century as in the last, worldwide nuclear disarmament remains the
goal. But now add to that another urgent aim: a legally binding global
treaty for the total prohibition and outlawing of all weapons of mass
destruction.

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited

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