Bush Administration Nuclear Posture Review Fatally Flawed
Mar 11, 2002
For immediate release: Saturday, March 9,2002
Contact: John Isaacs home (202) 3876474 office (202) 5434100
Washington, D.C. . .The Bush Administration’s Nuclear Posture Review is a dangerous escalation of the nuclear arms race at a time when nuclear weapons should be de-emphasized.
John Isaacs, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation’s policy director and president of Council for a Livable World, said: “A few months ago, President Bush promised Russian President Putin deep nuclear weapons reductions to adjust to the post-Cold War era.”
“Instead, the Bush Nuclear Posture Review includes Russia among seven countries targeted for nuclear weapons destruction and greatly expands potential uses for nuclear weapons,” continued Isaacs.
“Dr. Strangelove is alive and well in the Bush Pentagon,” he added.
For the past decade, the United States, the only country ever to use nuclear weapons to close out World War II, has been building up its conventional weapons superiority over the rest of the world. No other nation can match the United States in overall military spending — now nearing $400 billion annually — or precision guided munitions.
This conventional superiority has led some former hawks such as Paul Nitze to recommend abolition of nuclear weapons.
“For 56 years, the world has avoided nuclear weapons use despite many grave crises. The Bush Administration is now dangerously lowering the threshold for wreaking nuclear devastation across the planet,” said Isaacs .
“Raising the option of using the most destruction weapons on the planet ‘in the event of surprising military developments’ is dangerous thinking. President Bush should pull a ‘Mike Parker,’ the recently-ousted head of the Army Corps of Engineers, and clean house with the authors of the Nuclear Posture Review,” Isaacs concluded.
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