-Caveat Lector- -----Original Message----- From: Carol Moore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Peace list from <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tuesday, April 13, 1999 9:01 AM Subject: LA Times on Nuclear War Danger http://www.kreative.net/carolmoore/C&C-news.html > Los Angeles Times > 4/13/99 > > Cold War's End Leaves Danger of Nuclear War > Russia's disintegration threatens our security more by inadvertence than by > design. > By ROBERT SCHEER > > Back in the days of the Bush administration, Gen. Lee Butler, commander of > the Strategic Air Command, would once a month go through a practice phone > conversation with the White House concerning the end of the world. > > "Gen. Butler, what is your recommendation?" the Bush stand-in would ask > upon receiving an alert from NORAD that the Soviets had launched a nuclear > strike against the United States. Butler had to answer fast, because, in a > real attack, the president would have had only 12 minutes to decide whether > to launch thousands of nuclear missiles in retaliation. > > "Use them or lose them" would be the refrain running through Butler's > brain, well-versed in elegant nuclear deterrence theories of ladders of > escalation. "I had to say the words recommending the death warrant of tens > of millions of people, of civilization--20,000 weapons on both sides > exploding within 12 hours--knowing the planet can't withstand that." > > It still can't. Butler, a 33-year military veteran who rose to be > director of strategic plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is > retired now, and the Soviet Union is but a memory. Yet what haunts him, and > what occasioned his rare willingness to be interviewed, is that the Cold > War's end has increased, not decreased, the prospect of accidental nuclear > war. > > Twenty-thousand nuclear weapons left over from the Cold War still stand > poised for launching, and the MAD doctrine that guided them is very much in > force. Neither the U.S. nor Russia has abandoned nuclear war fighting as the > cornerstone of their respective national defense policies. "We still target > them with nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert," Butler observed. "The > world truly has been transformed, but what has not been transformed is our > thinking about it." > > Russia's political and economic disintegration now threatens our > security more by inadvertence than by design, prompting key Cold War > military establishment veterans like Butler to sound the alarm: > > "The Russian command and early warning system is in a state of great > decline; about two-thirds of the satellites they relied on for early warning > capability are inactive or failing. They're experiencing false alarms now on > almost a routine basis, and I shudder to think about the morale and > discipline of their rocket forces. There are worrisome aspects to all of > that. That's why people like myself are so puzzled and dismayed that our > government won't even address the problem." > > Addressing the problem requires bold leadership on nuclear disarmament > that's been sadly lacking in the Clinton years. There have been some > cosmetic arrangements with the Russians as to nuclear safety and targeting > issues but no real follow-up on arms control measures aggressively pursued > by George Bush. Give credit where due: Bush recognized that the end of the > Cold War permitted--nay, mandated--that the U.S. set an example by reducing > the size and lowering the alert status of its nuclear force. > > As Butler recalls, "The single most important arms controls were George > Bush's unilateral measures back in 1991, which took all of the tactical > nuclear weapons off the ships and brought many back from Europe, took the > bombers off alert and accelerated the retirement of the Minuteman II force. > And Mikhail Gorbachev followed suit. It's ironic that today we have a > Republican Congress that thwarts arms control progress, and yet it was a > Republican administration that really moved the ball down the field." > > Clinton has never been very interested in nuclear disarmament, and > these days seems bent on alarming the Russian leadership by expanding NATO's > membership and military role in Eastern Europe, including a NATO-led war > against Russia's neighbor, Yugoslavia. This has strengthened the hand of > hard-line communists and nationalists who control the Duma, undermining > chances for nuclear arms control progress. Those elements also point to > Clinton's endorsement of the harebrained effort to revive the "star wars" > Strategic Defense Initiative as further evidence that the U.S. is not > committed to arms control. > > Boris Yeltsin has his flaws, but humiliating him and undermining more > moderate forces in Russia is the path of disaster. In 1995, Yeltsin was > awakened in the middle of the night because one branch of his crumbling > military had failed to inform another of prior knowledge of a Norwegian > rocket launch, which they confused with a U.S. Trident missile. Fortunately, > this error was corrected before Yeltsin's 12 minutes of decision-making > passed. No wonder Butler is concerned. > - - - > Robert Scheer Is a Times Contributing Editor. ---------------- Global Emergency Alert Response http://www.angelfire.com/on/GEAR2000 ********************************************************* [EMAIL PROTECTED] GENERAL AGENCY SERVICES David Crockett Williams 661-822-3309 20411 Steeple Court, Tehachapi CA 93561 USA ********************************************************* The Global Peace Walk 1999-2000 1999: 22APR Taos, NM, ---> Santa Fe 26APR 2000: 15JAN San Francisco --> New York 24OCT 19SEP* Washington, DC, Ceremony Rededicating The Washington Monument as a Symbol of Peace. *3rd Tuesday of September is annual opening of UN General Assembly & International Day of Peace October 24th is United Nations Day "GLOBAL PEACE NOW!" 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