------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Nov. 28, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION: U.S. GOES FORWARD WITH BUNKER-BUSTER NUKES By Heather Cottin Nuclear bunker-busters are nuclear weapons that penetrate the earth. George Bush wants some. Buried in the monster $393-billion "defense" authorization bill that Congress approved in the middle of November is $15.5 million for "modifying nuclear weapons so they can be used to destroy underground factories or laboratories." (New York Times, Nov. 17) That is why the government says it needs these weapons. However, they can be used to obliterate civilians who may have taken refuge in an underground air raid shelter or the subway system of a large city. The U.S. government has already committed such an underground atrocity during the 1991 war on Iraq. Two U.S. missiles made direct hits on the underground Amariyah air raid shelter in Baghdad, incinerating over 1,500 civilians. (Columbia Journalism Review, May/June 1991) The U.S. at first denied this war crime, claiming it had hit a "command post." Only after the international media showed the crowds of grieving relatives and the burned corpses being removed did the Pentagon acknowledge the true nature of its target. The U.S. military already has nuclear bunker-busters, but the current nuclear earth penetrator, known as the B61-11, can achieve a depth of only 20 feet in dry earth. Nuclear bunker-busters are a threat to the security of the world. Plans for this new nuclear policy were made clear in January of 2002, when the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review called for a "New Triad," comprised of nuclear and non-nuclear offensive strike systems, and a revitalized defense infrastructure. (Observer, July 28, 2002). As part of this plan, the Pentagon wants to develop a bigger nuclear bunker-buster, the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, which will go deeper into the earth. They claim it will be clean. There is no such thing as a "clean" nuclear weapon, according to Princeton University physicist Robert Nelson. Even a very small nuclear bunker-buster with a yield of about 0.1 kiloton--1/200th the energy of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima--must penetrate approximately 230 feet underground for the explosion to be fully contained. But a 0.1-kiloton nuclear weapon would blow out a huge crater and eject a massive cloud of radioactive dust and debris into the atmosphere. Larger nuclear yields necessary to destroy targets buried deep underground would create considerably more fallout. (Council for a Livable World) A Nov. 17 New York Times article on specifically mentioned that the Bush administration is considering the use of these weapons in Iraq and North Korea. The Times noted that these weapons would require "a resumption of nuclear testing," which the U.S. suspended in 1992. According to the Council for a Livable World, "Nuclear bunker-busters pose unacceptable operational risks, involve tremendous political costs, and will undermine global security. ... They will disperse deadly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere." The nuclear blast would create a massive crater and shower highly radioactive dirt and debris; radiation levels would be lethal over several square miles. If used in a Third World city, such as Baghdad, tens of thousands of civilians would die, according to Princeton University's Robert Nelson and Frank von Hippel. If used on North Korea, these weapons could incinerate those who might take refuge in subways and underground shelters in the event of a U.S. attack. U.S. IS REAL ROGUE NATION These weapons of mass destruction are in direct violation of any remaining treaties against nuclear proliferation. As the London Observer noted, "Of all the international regimes to be affected by the NPR, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) may suffer the greatest blow. While the Bush administration professes to uphold the broad structure of the NPT, its plans contradict some of the 13 steps to advance the treaty agreed by all states' parties in May 2000." The Energy Department is simultaneously proposing a new $4- billion installation for making "plutonium pits that are at the heart of nuclear bombs." But nuclear bombs have no hearts and neither does this reckless administration, which destroys treaties as readily as it bombs innocents. The Bush White House and Democrats in Congress cynically denounce so-called "rogue nations" that they say threaten the earth with weapons of mass destruction. But the real rogue nation is right here. The U.S. government is terrorizing the world, transgressing and breaking every arms treaty, while the population is kept in the dark by the mass media. Only the anti-war movement can awaken the people to these great dangers. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
