From The Republican,Springfield,Connecticut
EDITORIALS
U.S. says shoot first, ask questions later
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
In a commencement address three years ago at West Point, the military academy that produces the nation's future generals, President Bush said that the United States must take "pre-emptive action" against its potential enemies.
"If we wait for threats to fully materialize," he said, "we will have waited too long."
Now, three years later, senior Pentagon officials are putting the finishing touches on a policy that would give military commanders the option to use nuclear weapons in a first-strike attack by the U.S.
When arms control advocates and members of Congress first learned that the Bush administration was serious, senior White House officials cautioned that the tactical use of nuclear weapons is being studied, not actively contemplated.
That sounds like a line from the Cold War.
They used the same argument when seeking to end a decade-old ban on the research and development of small nuclear weapons - known as "mini-nukes."
Even if that's true, any formal U.S. national security strategy that endorses the use of nuclear weapons will make it more difficult, if not impossible, to convince rogue nations that they don't need nuclear weapons.
Again, the United States, as it did with the global warming treaty and other international treaties, is sending a signal to the world that there are two sets of rules: one for the U.S. and one for everybody else.
Proponents argue that the U.S. should have the option to use nuclear weapons in a first strike against nations or terrorists who might intend to use chemical, biological or nuclear weapons against the U.S.
They are assuming that U.S. intelligence agencies will be able to provide the president with proof that those chemical, biological or nuclear weapons exist and that they pose a significant immediate threat to the United States.
These are the same intelligence agencies that claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, although careful inspections before and after the invasion failed to find any.
Even if the intelligence were correct, imagine if something went wrong in the attack and radioactive material was released into the atmosphere risking thousands of innocent lives.
If it's preemptive action that the White House wants, the Pentagon can begin by taking out the nuclear option.