For anyone who doesn't (or does) believe that the current administration is intent on pushing the global community closer to the nuclear precipice, here is the last paragraph of an excellent article in the 4/1/02 issue of The Nation by Raffi Khatchadourian. The whole thing can be read at http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020401&c=1&s=khatchadourian
"Nuclear weapons as now designed and employed are essentially useless because you cannot cross this threshold between conventional and nuclear without being unequivocal about it: If you use a nuclear weapon, you're saying, 'We're now in nuclear phase,'" explains retired Rear Adm. Eugene Carroll. "Whereas these people say, 'Well, this new weapon is so little, and we can apply it so precisely, and it's for such a specific purpose that nobody can believe that we're being irresponsible or careless or radical in our use of such a wonderful little weapon.' But the truth is, the first use of nuclear explosives in warfare breaches the firewall, as some people call it, and when we go on beyond that, we're put at the mercy of the other side, which probably doesn't have such 'useful' or 'usable' weapons."
