GUEST,Don Hakman - 13 Feb 04 - 06:29 PM

"The old "arms race" between the former Soviet Union and the United States may be over, but has the United States -- the nuclear giant of the world, and hence the nation in the strongest position to take a leadership role -- acted in "good faith" to eliminate its own nuclear weapons and encourage others to do the same?"

Both the US and Russia, were quite a way down the road on nuclear disarmament, when the process came to halt due to the activities of both India and Pakistan.

As to the United States being, "-- .... bent on continuing to create, and threaten the use of, nuclear weapons.", Don is not telling anybody anything new here. What he goes on to describe has existed since the mid-1960's.

"...the Bush administration's January 2002 Nuclear Posture Review laid out a nuclear policy that calls for the development of low-yield or so-called "mini-nukes" and integrates nuclear weapons with conventional strike options. The review discusses possible first-use of nuclear weapons, even against non-nuclear countries if the United States believes a country may use chemical or biological weapons against the United States or its allies."

In short, what is being discussed here are tactical nuclear weapons. The UK unilaterally renounced the use of CB weapons in the 1960's, the USSR did not and spent vast sums developing them. During the "cold war", to counter that threat to western Europe, NATO responded by stating clearly that such weapons would be countered with the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

The world should be no more nervous about this now, than it may have been for the last fifty years. In all that time, I have not missed one wink of sleep over it, and I would say that that holds true for the bulk of the world's population.