BOBERT FACT - US has nuclear bunker busting bombs

ACTUAL FACT :

"US drops nuclear "bunker buster" from budget"
Date 27 October 2005 by Shaoni Bhattacharya


Controversial plans to research nuclear "bunker busters" have been abandoned by the by the US in the country's 2006's budget.

The Bush administration and the Senate have agreed with the House of Representatives to scrap the funding for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) in the 2006 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill.

The Pentagon will instead focus on developing a conventional deep-earth penetrating bomb, said Senator Pete Domenici, chair of the Senate subcommittee dealing with the issue.

He said the National Nuclear Security Administration had requested such a switch. "The focus will now be with the Defense Department and its research into earth-penetrating technology using conventional weaponry. The NNSA indicated that this research should evolve around more conventional weapons rather than tactical nuclear devices," he said in a statement."

Some More ACTUAL FACT:

During the "Cold War" the Soviet Union and the United States were creating bunkers buried under huge volumes of soil or reinforced concrete in order to withstand the multi-megaton thermonuclear weapons developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Bunker penetration weapons were initially designed out of this Cold War context.

The weapon was revisited in the post-Cold War for use in Afghanistan in 2001, and again during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. During the campaign in Tora Bora in particular, the United States believed that "vast underground complexes," deeply buried, were protecting opposing forces. Such complexes were not found. While a nuclear penetrator (the "Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator", or "RNEP") was never built, the DOE was allotted budget to develop it, and tests were conducted by the Air Force Research Laboratory.

As well, it has been stated that Iran may have such deeply buried bunkers to guard its nuclear program.

The Bush administration removed its request for funding of the weapon in October 2005. Additionally, US Senator Pete Domenici announced funding for the nuclear bunker-buster has been dropped from the Department of Energy's fiscal 2006 budget at the department's request, strongly indicating that the project for the development of the RNEP seems to be in fact canceled.

Now I am willing to place a bet that Bobert will continue to witter on about the evils of this US weapon that does not exist.

To Guest ifor:
"I don't think the path to peace in the region will be attained by the unleashing of a river of blood and gore. The atrocities committed by the Israeli military are going to be remembered."

Irrespective of whether they have committed them or not as has proven to be the case in the past Guest ifor

"Secondly how will there be peace when a one state solution with all inhabitants having full democratic rights is rejected out of hand by the Israelis who see it as an end to the Zionist project?"

What Zionist project is that Guest ifor?? That second point of yours doesn't really reflect the history of the area does it?? I think that after unprovoked attack, after unprovoked attack, by Palestinian Arabs on Palestinian Jews between 1920 and 1937 (Peel Commission) it suddenly dawned on the British that there was never going to be a one state solution because the Palestinian Arabs simply refused point blank to live in a single state and peacefully co-exist with their Jewish neighbours, many of whom Guest ifor had been there for hundreds of years. Towards the end of the British Mandate period the United Nations came to exactly the same conclusion and proposed a two state solution that the Israelis accepted and the Arabs rejected. So tell me Guest ifor, if what you say is true please tell me exactly when it was that the Israelis rejected a single state solution. I take it that you can do that, or is this just another "Marxist Myth".

"But the Israelis have also made a two state solution unworkable because Israel has created facts on the ground in the West Bank by allowing/encouraging the settlement of around 500000 settlers ,many organised like armed paramilitaries in the occupied territories."

Tell me Guest ifor, there were "Israeli Settlers" in Gaza prior to the hand-over to the Palestinians in 2005. Those settlers had been there for years. The Israeli Government stated that as part of the hand-over the settlers would be removed. Where are those settlers now Guest ifor?? Are they still in Gaza? Or did Israel keep its word?? What was the Palestinian part of the deal Guest ifor?? It had something to do with a cessation of indiscriminate rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli civilians from inside Gaza didn't it?? Tell me Guest ifor, did the Palestinians keep their word?? Now according to their track record Guest ifor, if Israel states that it will return the West Bank to the Palestinians in order that a two-state solution can be implemented and that all settlers will be removed. Then oddly enough Guest ifor based upon their track record in similar circumstances I believe that the Israelis would do precisely what they said they would do.

"The land grab by the State and the settlers has been going on for years and is still going on...accompanied by shootings,arrests,demolition of houses,road blocks,lockdowns, beatings, the stealing of water supplies,grubbing up of orchards,and the building of the giant Apartheid Wall across Palestinian land."

I do love it when lefties get all emotional, you can almost see them frothing up – no mention there of the attacks on the Israeli population Guest ifor. The dangerous thing is that, according to your perspective and that of many others on this forum in relation to this conflict, no matter what Israel can do no right and expect to live and the more that that is pushed and promulgated the starker the choice becomes. If the Israelis are to be accused of doing something that they at present most certainly are not then why not say "to hell with it, if we're being accused of it lets actually do it, wipe them out. We may be hated but we will be safe". Because neither, Egypt, Jordan, Syria or Lebanon is going to go to war with Israel over the Palestinians who have repeatedly rejected ever peace offer ever made. Sad fact is Guest ifor, that none of those countries, or those "heroic freedom fighters" of Hamas, et al, give a tupenny-hapenny damn about "The Palestinians" – They never have, not for one second.

"…it is the Israeli criminal government which is responsible for the ongoing conflict."

Please correct me if I am wrong here Guest ifor but it was Hamas that is down on record as the party that ended the "cease-fire" and it was Israel that was down on record as wanting it to continue.

The responsibility for the safety of the Palestinians within Gaza rests solely with their elected "Government" and that, unfortunately for the "Palestinians", is Hamas. It is up to Hamas to protect its citizens and act in their best interests to secure their safety, in exactly the same way it is the responsibility of the elected Government of Israel to safeguard and protect its citizens. The Israeli military intervention in Gaza was brought about by attacks on Israeli centres of population by Hamas and other terrorist groups operating within Gaza with the consent of Hamas. World wide revulsion is not worth the life of a single child – Now Guest ifor tell that to Hamas.