Doomsday -- Dr. Strangelove in the White House
 

Doomsday Clock

For nearly 55 years, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists' clock (a.k.a. the “Doomsday Clock”) has been the world’s most recognizable symbol of nuclear danger. 

2002 | Seven minutes to midnight
February 27,2002 marked the first time the hands of the clock had changed in 4 years (Doomsday Clock to Be Changed).
the bulletin states: "Little progress is made on global nuclear disarmament. The United States rejects a series of arms control treaties and announces it will withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Terrorists seek to acquire and use nuclear and biological weapons."
The hands have not been set this close to Midnight since the mid 1980's when the bulletin stated “Arms control negotiations have been reduced to a species of propaganda. . . . The blunt simplicities of force threaten to displace any other form of discourse between the superpowers." 

And here we go again... with Dr. Strangelove back in the saddle in Washington ...  commandeering the military might of the surviving superpower - I remember Ripper's passionate speech to his men:

"Your commie (read 'terrorist') has no regard for human life, not even his own. And for this reason, men, I want to impress upon you the need for extreme watchfulness. The enemy may come individually, or he may come in strength. He may even come in the uniform of our own troops. But however he comes, we must stop him. We must not allow him to gain entrance to this base...."(Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb -1964)

 

Saturday, 9 March, 2002, 17:01 GMT--- BBC

US 'has nuclear hit list'
The Japanese city of Hiroshima shortly after a US nuclear bomb destroyed it in 1945
"First use" has been unthinkable for years

The Bush administration has reportedly ordered the Pentagon to prepare contingency plans for attacking seven countries with nuclear weapons.

Quoting a secret Pentagon report, the Los Angeles Times newspaper names China, Russia, Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Libya and Syria as potential targets.

 

Furthermore, the military have apparently been directed to build smaller nuclear weapons for battlefield use.The Pentagon has declined to comment on the report which analysts have described as "dynamite".

According to the paper, the report lists three situations in which the weapons could be used.

These include "retaliation for attack with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons" and "against targets able to withstand non-nuclear attack".

The third category - "in the event of surprising military developments" - is described by the BBC's Washington correspondent, Paul Reynolds, as a "catch-all" clause.

The paper says the report was presented by the Pentagon to members of Congress on Friday.

It is quoted as saying the Pentagon should be ready to use nuclear weapons in an Arab-Israeli conflict, a war between China and Taiwan and an attack by North Korea on the South.

As for Russia, the report says that it is only listed in view of its own large nuclear arsenal and it is not viewed as an enemy.

'Taboo lifted'

Defence analysts told the Los Angeles Times that the secret report appeared to mark the first time an official list of target countries had come to light.

"I can imagine what these countries are going to be saying at the UN," said Joseph Cirincione, a nuclear arms expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

The report clearly referred to nuclear arms as a "tool for fighting a war, rather than deterring them", he added.

Anti-nuclear campaigners pointed out that the reported instruction to build new tactical nuclear weapons indicated that the administration of George W Bush was more willing to lift the old taboo on using nuclear weapons except as a last resort.

"This is very, very dangerous talk," said John Isaacs, president of the Council for a Livable World.

"Dr Strangelove is clearly still alive in the Pentagon," he commented, referring to a 1964 feature film about a nightmare nuclear conflict between the US and the Soviet Union.

Our correspondent recalls that the US made a veiled threat to Iraq during the Gulf War that it could respond with nuclear weapons to an attack by Baghdad using chemical or biological weapons
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1864000/

See also:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/10/international/10NUKE.html

Secret Plan Outlines the Unthinkable
The Bush administration, in a secret policy review completed early this year, has ordered the Pentagon to draft contingency plans for the use of nuclear weapons against at least seven countries, naming not only Russia and the "axis of evil"--Iraq, Iran, ...3/10/02

FOR THE RECORD
Pentagon document: A story Saturday misrepresented a classified Defense Department document obtained by The Times. The copy of the "Nuclear Posture Review" included most of the report's contents, but not the complete 3/10/02

Bush Team Defends U.S. Nuke Plans
President Bush's top foreign-affairs advisers say the United States must be prepared to use nuclear weapons to deter attacks involving weapons of mass destruction. But in an effort to ease alarm overseas, they said there were no plans to do so. "We all ...3/10/02

World Reacts to U.S. Nuclear Plan
Japan, the only country ever to be hit by nuclear weapons, was tightlipped about news that Washington is reviewing its policy for nuclear attacks on countries that threaten the United States with weapons of mass destruction. Governments around the world ...3/11/02

Nuclear Plan Meant to Deter
U.S officials on Sunday defended the Pentagon's contingency plans for expanded use of nuclear weapons, saying the intent is to deter other nations from using biological or chemical weapons against Americans. The Bush administration wants to "send a very... 3/11/02

But now, more than ever:

Daschle is Right to Raise Questions About War Policy

 
Helen Thomas writes, "If we are to believe the Republican leadership, members of Congress must turn into robots, give up their right of dissent and get on board the president's [sic] wartime bandwagon as cheerleaders. That was the eye-opening conclusion to be drawn from the hysterical GOP response last week to Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle's remarks that the administration needs to provide lawmakers with a 'clearer understanding' of where the war on terrorism is headed... Does anybody remember the Vietnam War when Congress lived to regret giving President Lyndon B. Johnson carte blanche in Southeast Asia? As the war wore on, disillusionment set in and the country became deeply divided over what was seen as an unwinnable war. As the philosopher George Santayana said, 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.' So I say to Congress: It's time to speak up."
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0308-04.htm

 

Taking our liberties

Anthony Lewis writes, "The war against terrorism will go on indefinitely, President [sic] Bush has warned, seeking the enemy around the world. Already American forces are committed to the Philippines, Georgia and Yemen. Iraq may be next... War without end is likely to have - indeed is already having - profound consequences for the American constitutional system. It tends to produce the very thing that the framers of the Constitution most feared:  concentrated, unaccountable political power. The framers ... divided power in the federal government, so that one branch could check another if it grew too mighty. They made government accountable to the people, who, in James Madison's words, had 'the censorial power ... over the government.' And, in the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, they guaranteed specific rights like freedom of speech and due process of law. All three of those constitutional bulwarks against concentrated power are now threatened."

 

 
 

 

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