Walter Pincus: Congress Skeptical of Warhead Plan

[babylonsister]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042207D.shtml

Congress Skeptical of Warhead Plan
By Walter Pincus
The Washington Post

Sunday 22 April 2007

Lawmakers and experts question necessity, implications of a new nuclear weapon.

Congressional hearings over the past several weeks have shown that the Bush administration's plan to move ahead with a new generation of nuclear warheads faces strong opposition from House and Senate members concerned that the effort lacks any strategic underpinning and could lead to a new nuclear arms race.

snip//

The program involves not only coordinating the design and costs of a new warhead for the Trident submarine-launched intercontinental missile, but also a multibillion-dollar plan - called Complex 2030 by the Department of Energy - to modernize the aging nuclear weapons facilities where warheads and bombs are designed, built and dismantled.

Rep. Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds the nuclear complex, said at a hearing late last month that the program is proceeding "although the administration has not announced any effort to begin a policy process to reassess our nuclear weapons policy and the future nuclear stockpile required to support that policy." He also noted that the Pentagon's Defense Science Board reported last year that there has been virtually no high-level, long-term articulation of U.S. nuclear weapons policy.

Gen. James E. Cartwright, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, which controls the nation's nuclear weapons, said at the hearing that he would like to challenge the proposed level of 1,700 to 2,200 warheads by 2012 as possibly too high, "based on new capability, not new nuclear capability."

more...

[LynnTheDem]

1. It's ok when George W. bUsh violates the NPT and makes new nukes.

But it's not ok when Iran doesn't violate the NPT and exercises their "inalienable right" to nuclear power.

And Americans wonder why we're seen as the biggest hypocrite on the planet.