Pentagon Nuclear Plan Obtuse, Unwise and Immoral

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 12, 2002

Pentagon Nuclear Plan Obtuse, Unwise and Immoral - US Analyst

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Pentagon report revealing the US military contingency plan to use nuclear weapons against other nations is diplomatically obtuse, strategically unwise and morally unacceptable, said US analyst Jill Nelson.

It is frightening to think that as average Americans bow heads in prayer, or light a candle, observe a moment of silence, commemorate the lives lost and sense of invulnerability and innocence shattered six months ago in whatever way we deem appropriate, the president and those at the Pentagon are seriously contemplating using "small" nuclear weapons against enemy targets that are "able to withstand non-nuclear attack, said Mr Nelson.

The comments came after Los Angeles Times said it had obtained a classified Pentagon report revealing the US military contingency plan to use nuclear weapons against seven countries, consisting of China, Russia, Iraq, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Iran, Libya and Syria.

He said: "I can't be the only one struck by the irony that as people across the United States peacefully observe the passage of six months since the terrorist attacks on America, Pentagon is considering a fundamental change in established policy on nuclear weapons, lowering the threshold from their use as tools of deterrence to active instruments of conventional warfare."

Nelson described the Pentagon plan is an enormous and horrific shift in policy, and yet another effort to derail the global impetus for nuclear disarmament that is more crucial than ever in this New World.

He argued that he tragedy of Sept. 11, the continuing war in Afghanistan, the knowledge that there are nations and political factions in the world that wish US ill, the failure to find or kill Osama bin Laden is no justification for changing the fundamental rules on nuclear arsenal. The administration's consideration of using nuclear weapons to fight its war on terror is like the kid who is beaten in a fist fight, goes home, and returns with a gun.

He warned that the plan reflected an attempt to take the world back to the Cold War, but now there are no other superpowers.

Yet it is also an effort to take us forward, into some unacceptable brave new world. It threatens to bring into being a world in which the United States accepts, develops, and, once it has gone that far, almost inevitably uses nuclear weaponry against enemies in caves and those with underground installations when conventional warfare is unable to do the job quickly or efficiently enough, he added.

Mr Nelson finally warned that happens, the United States will have won the title of the world's No. 1 nuclear terrorist.

Already US allies in Europe, the Middle East and Asia have raised their voices in protest and horror at this early report.

China, being listed as one of a potential targets of US nuclear strikes, on Monday said it was "deeply shocked'' at the report and demanded an explanation.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi reminded the United States of an agreement that the two nations would not target each other with nuclear weapons.

"Like many other countries, China is deeply shocked by this report," Sun said.

"Any Cold War mentality goes against the global trend of peace and development through cooperation, and is doomed to failure," Sun said.

Sun said China was "a peace-loving country and poses no threat to any other nation", and demanded the US government explain itself.

"The US side bears the responsibility to make an explanation on this matter," he said.

He added that China has all along advocated the comprehensive ban and complete elimination of nuclear weapons.

Nuclear weapon states should commit themselves to the unconditional no-first-use of nuclear weapons, and promise not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons on nuclear weapon-free countries and regions, said Sun.

Ye Zicheng, dean of the diplomacy department at Beijing University, said the report showed the continued existence within the United States government of a "China threat" school of thought, which sees rising Chinese economic, political and military power as a menace to other countries.

Russia also reacted with concern to the US report and demanded clarification.

US Vice President Dick Cheney tried on Monday to ease international worry, saying the United States was not targeting its nuclear weapons as a matter of course at any particular nation, and described the media reports as "a bit over the top".

Source: China Daily

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