Glenfiddich wrote in
:

On 24 Dec 2003 10:12:05 -0800, (Rob van Riel) wrote:

(Bill Negraeff) wrote in message
.com...
I think the US will wait until everybody else disarms and destroys
their WMDs. Remember, unlike all those other countries, the US has
these things for purely defensive purposes.

That's pretty much the heart of the matter, isn't it? Do we, or do we
not, believe that the US would only use its nukes in self defence,
that is, either as a deterrant or retalliation to a similar attack?
The current administration seems to have little qualms about using
them to bully other parties into compliance or, given the research
into nuclear 'bunker busters', to actually use them as whim or
convenience dictate.

Those 'bunker buster' nukes have been proposed for destroying and
sterilising buried stocks of germ warfare material.
For THAT purpose, their use is eminently sensible and logically
defensible.

The alternatives - allowing an enemy to deploy such weapons, or
acccidentally dispersing them with a conventional attack - are NOT
attractive.



If one conventionally bombs a target where such munitions are stored
without our knowledge,they still could be released.
That -could- have happened in Iraq.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik-at-kua.net