"Could This Unleash an Unintended Nuclear War?"

[swag]

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=67231

Katrina vanden Heuvel, 03/09/2006, 2:37 p

Ann Tyson reports in the Washington Post yesterday that the Pentagon wants $500 million to convert 24 Trident missiles currently armed with nuclear warheads into rockets carrying conventional warheads.

But there is a serious problem with this plan. Defense officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, "acknowledge a major risk is that other nations could conceivably misinterpret a conventional missile attack as a nuclear strike."

Nuclear experts concur that "the possibility for confusion would be high because U.S. submarines capable of launching the missiles could be armed with conventional and nuclear varieties."

Further, a threatened nation would have to make such a determination under the most dire circumstances, with an average flight time of 12-24 minutes to hit targets 5,000-6,000 miles away.

Victoria Samson, Research Analyst at the Center for Defense Information commented, "Shifting these ICBM's into conventional weapons involves too much trust. How will unfriendly nations know these are conventional? Will they trust us enough to believe us? Would we trust them? With nuclear weapons, we can't afford any misconceptions."

. . . more

[kentuck]

1. Violence and war begets violence and unpredictable consequences..

That is why we should so fear those that cheerlead for war. They do not know where they are going. No one knows where they are going once the war begins.

[Erika]

3. Yep. Including the doctrine of pre-emptive strikes n/t

[C_U_L8R]

2. Why should anyone trust us...

when we're shooting friggin missiles across continents.. geez

[Canuckistanian]

4. Who do they think will attack them with nukes?

Not Iran, they don't have that capacity yet.

They'd be lucky to get a functional bomb, period, let alone an ICBM.

[Higans]

5. No. Bush intends to start a Nuclear war. He already has.

Don't believe me? click here:

http://www.bushflash.com/pl_lo.html

[Hekate]

6. I saw this coming a couple of years ago w/ Rummy's "tactical nukes"

I read that here -- "usable tactical nukes" and "bunker busters" -- and I remember posting "Are they INSANE?"

I still feel the same way. Some members of this regime -- unfortunately the ones with the most power -- are deeply evil and psychopathic.

I spent my entire childhood and young adulthood beneath the threat of a nuclear holocaust, and my government in concert with other governments inched us back from this, bit by bit, with diplomacy and treaties.

These unspeakable bastards are UNdoing it all. They have brought back this nightmare.

Hekate