FT.com / US - US nuclear policy set to draw fire at treaty review
FT.com / US - US nuclear policy set to draw fire at treaty review: "US nuclear policy set to draw fire at treaty review
By Demetri Sevastopulo
Published: April 27 2005 03:00 | Last updated: April 27 2005 03:00
Robert McNamara, the Vietnam-era US defence secretary and star of the Oscar-winning documentary Fog of War, recently lambasted the US for failing to fulfil its obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).
Summing up his objections in the current edition of Foreign Policy magazine, he wrote: 'I would characterise current US nuclear weapons policy as immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary and dreadfully dangerous.' His criticisms are likely to be resurrected at the 2005 NPT review conference in New York next week.
At the last conference, in 2000, participants agreed on 13 steps towards nuclear disarmament. Since then, however, many non-nuclear states have grown concerned that the five NPT nuclear states - Britain, Russia, France, China and, in particular, the US - want only to curtail the nuclear ambitions of other countries.
'While claiming to be protecting the world from proliferation threats in Iraq, Libya, Iran and North Korea, American leaders not only have abandoned existing treaty restraints but also have asserted plans to test and develop new weapons,' former US president Jimmy Carter wrote last month.
One concern is the nuclear 'bunker buster'. President George W. Bush has asked Congress for money to study the feasibility of such a bomb, aimed at destroying targets that rogue regimes bury deep underground. Congress last year rejected a similar request.
Opponents concede that the bunker buster would not legally contravene the NPT. But they say it runs counter to the 13 steps, which include calls for 'a diminishing role for nuclear weapons in security policies'.
Jean du Preez, of the Monterey Institute for International Studies, says that by considering such a weapon the US is putting strain on the NPT regime by ma"
By Demetri Sevastopulo
Published: April 27 2005 03:00 | Last updated: April 27 2005 03:00
Robert McNamara, the Vietnam-era US defence secretary and star of the Oscar-winning documentary Fog of War, recently lambasted the US for failing to fulfil its obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).
Summing up his objections in the current edition of Foreign Policy magazine, he wrote: 'I would characterise current US nuclear weapons policy as immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary and dreadfully dangerous.' His criticisms are likely to be resurrected at the 2005 NPT review conference in New York next week.
At the last conference, in 2000, participants agreed on 13 steps towards nuclear disarmament. Since then, however, many non-nuclear states have grown concerned that the five NPT nuclear states - Britain, Russia, France, China and, in particular, the US - want only to curtail the nuclear ambitions of other countries.
'While claiming to be protecting the world from proliferation threats in Iraq, Libya, Iran and North Korea, American leaders not only have abandoned existing treaty restraints but also have asserted plans to test and develop new weapons,' former US president Jimmy Carter wrote last month.
One concern is the nuclear 'bunker buster'. President George W. Bush has asked Congress for money to study the feasibility of such a bomb, aimed at destroying targets that rogue regimes bury deep underground. Congress last year rejected a similar request.
Opponents concede that the bunker buster would not legally contravene the NPT. But they say it runs counter to the 13 steps, which include calls for 'a diminishing role for nuclear weapons in security policies'.
Jean du Preez, of the Monterey Institute for International Studies, says that by considering such a weapon the US is putting strain on the NPT regime by ma"
posted by Greta Jane at Wednesday, April 27, 2005
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