Iran, Are You Listening? And Members of the Amalgamated Low - Quotient And Expendable, Deranged Assasins union?

Pentagon Revises Nuclear Strike Plan
Strategy Includes Preemptive Use Against Banned Weapons from Washington Post
Article by Walter Pincus

The preemptive strategy was first announced by the Bush White House in December 2002. A White House spokesman said at the time that the United States would "respond with overwhelming force" to the use of weapons of mass destruction against the United States, its forces or allies, and said "all options" would be available to the president. The new document "revises the discussion of nuclear weapons use across the range of military operations."

The Joint Staff draft doctrine says that there are "about thirty nations with WMD programs" along with "nonstate actors [terrorists] either independently or as sponsored by an adversarial state." The document states "responsible security planning requires preparation for threats that are possible, though perhaps unlikely today." The revised doctrine for use of nuclear weapons envisions commanders requesting presidential approval to use them.

The first example of nuclear weapon use listed in the draft is against an enemy that is using "or intending to use WMD" against U.S. or allied, multinational military forces or civilian populations.

Another scenario for a possible nuclear preemptive strike is in case of an "imminent attack from adversary biological weapons that only effects from nuclear weapons can safely destroy."

The draft document also envisions the use of atomic weapons for "attacks on adversary installations including WMD, deep, hardened bunkers containing chemical or biological weapons."

Hans M. Kristensen, a consultant to the Natural Resources Defense Council, who discovered the document Titled "Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations" on a Pentagon Web site. Kristensen said. "It provides justification for contentious concepts not proven and implies the need for RNEP." RNEP is short for Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator.

The draft is expected to be signed within a few weeks by Air Force Lt. Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, director of the Joint Staff. It will deter a potential adversary from using such weapons by assuring to the adversary's leadership the United States has both the ability and will to pre-empt or retaliate promptly with responses that are credible and effective. Hooray!