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| Kerry Will Shut Down Bunker Busters |
| 2004-09-30 |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #4 Rove and Co. should be all over this one, especially since it was the Clinton administration that already threatened use of the nuclear bunker-buster, the B61-11, against Libya in 1996. Background, from CDI: Little noted in this debate is the fact that the United States has been at work on similar weapons since the mid-nineties and already has a bunker-busting nuclear weapon, the B61-11, a nuclear gravity bomb.4 The Pentagon began developing the B61-11 in 1993 and deployed it in 1997. Treading lightly around its obligations under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the United States observes but has never ratified, American nuclear scientists billed B61-11 as a spin-off of an existing weapon. By putting an iron casing around the nuclear warhead, the design theoretically allowed the weapon, released from an aircraft, to burrow through earth or concrete to destroy its target - the same mission officials at the Department of Energy envision for weapons currently being studied. Funny that Kerry didn't have a problem with the Clinton administration's explicit threats to destroy Libya's underground nuclear weapons facilities by means of bunker-busting bombs. In 1996, the United States even threatened to use the B61-11 against Libya. When American intelligence learned that the Libyans were building a large underground plant to develop chemical weapons, Defense Secretary William Perry stated publicly that the United States would consider its whole range of weapons to stop construction - an implicit reference to nuclear weapons. Kerry is arguing for disarmament. And going against a policy already put in action by a Democratic administration that was actually faced with a rogue state determined to push ahead with its underground nuclear program. We're back to 1983 again, and the same silliness that we heard from the freeze crowd. Bush/Rove will make mincemeat of Kerry just as Reagan did of Mondale in 1984. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-10-01 3:31:33 AM |
| #3 The Fy1997 budget request contained $18.4 million to procure 161 GBU-28 hard target penetrator bombs for the military. At about $115,000 each, I'm sure Kerry is using his 'comparable worth' theory to justify the shutdown! One bomb would feed 5 Walmart families a year! |
| Posted by: smn 2004-10-01 2:21:57 AM |
| #2 Unilateral disarmament isn't going to go down well with the "security moms." AQ, the NORKS and, IRAN will love it however. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-10-01 2:12:50 AM |
| #1 This should decide the election. A bigger blunder than Jerry Ford's remark about Poland. What on earth is the rationale for unilaterally halting production of bunker-busting bombs? Who gave Kerry this bright idea--Helen Caldicott? If you believe in non-proliferation, then bunker-busting weapons are essential. They can destroy nukes hidden deep underground by rogue states. We alone have them. Destroying them is a patently stupid idea that not even the most deluded 1980s nuclear freeze advocate could have dreamed up. I can't believe Bush did not rip it to shreds, or that Rove will not in coming days rip Kerry to shreds on this issue. How can anyone who takes WMD seriously vote for Kerry after watching him passionately argue for unilateral disarmament? |
| Posted by: lex 2004-10-01 1:59:35 AM |