Because the World Needs More Nukes
Donald Rumsfeld’s gotta have them “bunker busters” if he’s gonna get them mullahs outta Iran, or how else can we get the Shah back in office? Bush has been looking for some new way to use atomic weapons, and eliminating Tehran’s uranium enrichment program before it gets too far along is the opportunity he’s been waiting for. Well, actually, Iraq’s WMD program was the opportunity he was waiting for, but the hue and cry over developing new nukes for actual use in the Middle East was enough to quiet things down for a little while. But that was before it turned out that Hussein’s WMD program didn’t exist. Iran’s does, albeit in an indeterminate state presently. There are those among the internet punditry who believe the use of nuclear weapons against theocratic Arab despots is appropriate, even desirable. There are, as always, some who have already been calling for a direct strike with an atomic warhead; none of this namby-pamby specialized, targeted usage: hit Mecca now, they say. This is Cold War thinking. So is the White House’s drive for new nukes, but that’s what comes from stocking your pool of advisors with old Cold Warriors and theorists. Is it any coincidence, do you think, that Rumsfeld is Secretary of Defense and Rice was National Security Advisor, now Secretary of State? The old hatreds, right along with the old mind-sets, are still at work, just applied to new targets. But, like George W. Bush himself is fond of saying, we need to use post-September 11 thinking now. New strategies for a new world. I have to agree; it’s just a shame the Bush administration doesn’t practice what it preaches. It will be worse if they ever use these things.