NP? reaction to Bush nuke plan

[Doug Millison]

http://www.accuracy.org/press_releases/PR031302.htm

JOHN BURROUGHS www.lcnp.org
Executive director of the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy, Burroughs
said: "Contrary to what Bush said today, the Nuclear Posture Review [NPR]
expands the circumstances in which nuclear weapons could be used beyond
those that deter an attack on the United States.... The U.S. cannot
credibly tell Iraq and North Korea to permit inspections to verify the
absence of nuclear arms while threatening to use nuclear weapons against
those countries. Preventing terrorists from obtaining nuclear bombs
requires international cooperation, not revulsion among allies and foes
alike against the U.S. claim in the NPR to be able to use nuclear weapons
in response to 'surprising military developments.'"



CHRIS PAINE,  www.nrdc.org/nuclear
A senior analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, Paine said
today: "Over the next 10 years, the administration's plans call for the
U.S. to retain a total stockpile of intact nuclear weapons and weapon
components that is roughly seven to nine times larger than the publicly
stated goal of 1,700 to 2,200 'operationally deployed weapons.' This is an
accounting system worthy of Enron. To the 'accountable' tally of 2,200 one
must add the 240 missile warheads on the two Trident submarines in overhaul
at any given time; 1,350 strategic missile and bomber warheads in the
'responsive force'; 800 'nonstrategic' bombs assigned to U.S./NATO
'dual-capable' aircraft; 320 'nonstrategic' sea-launched cruise missile
warheads in the 'responsive force'; 160 'spare' warheads; 4,900 intact
warheads in the 'inactive reserve' and the 5,000 stored plutonium 'primary'
and 'secondary' components that could be reassembled into weapons. In other
words, the Bush administration is actually planning to retain the potential
to deploy not 1,700 to 2,200 nuclear weapons, but as many as 15,000."


PERVEZ HOODBHOY,  www.chowk.com
Hoodbhoy is a professor of physics at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad,
Pakistan. He said today: "Why should every country of the world not develop
nuclear weapons now that America may nuke anyone at anytime? The Bush
administration has announced that it views nuclear weapons as instruments
for fighting wars, not merely as the weapons of last resort. Resurgent
American militarism is destroying every arms control measure everywhere.
Those of us in Pakistan and India, who have long fought against
nuclearization of the subcontinent, have been temporarily rendered
speechless."


...Pynchon relevance:  see GR, final page.