Re: U.S. Leaps Back into the Nuclear Weapons Race
Geschrieben von Andreas am 27. Dezember 2003 12:38:47:
Als Antwort auf: Nachrichten (o.T.) geschrieben von Napoleon am 27. Dezember 2003 09:25:27:
Buried in the energy bill signed by the president earlier this month are three little lines. The amounts are small, but together they do nothing less than put the United States on the road to developing and eventually testing new nuclear weapons for the first time since the end of the Cold War.
Three little lines, but with potentially shattering impact:
• The bill funds research on new, so-called mini-nukes, nuclear warheads with an explosive power a third or less of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. In November, the administration succeeded in overcoming bipartisan opposition to lifting a decade-long ban on research and development of such weapons.
• The bill also increased spending on ''bunker buster'' warheads that can burrow deep into the earth, even through rock, and destroy buried bunkers or command centers.
• The bill provides money to refurbish the Nevada test site. Underground nuclear tests, halted since 1992, could then resume in a year and a half, rather than the two to three years now needed.
The administration portrays this as part of a revamping of our nuclear arsenal to meet new threats, including the spread of weapons of mass destruction to so-called rogue states. But the military has never asked for nuclear weapons to meet that threat.
Finally, most experts believe such new weapons ideas will eventually require testing, and Russia, China and other nuclear powers will quickly follow. In the end, the world could find itself right back where it was a few decades ago -- in the midst of a nuclear arms race no one needs or wants.
Die Welt ist im Kalten Krieg bereits einmal um den Einsatz von Atomwaffen herumgekommen. Ein zweites Mal wird es ihr wohl leider nicht vergönnt sein.
Gruss
Andreas
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1224-05.htm