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Pentagon Pre-Emptive Nuclear Attack Plan Far From Finished, Senior Official Says
The U.S. Defense Department has not finalized plans to allow military officials to seek presidential approval to use nuclear weapons to block WMD strikes against the United States or its allies, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Sept. 12). A senior Pentagon official said the draft nuclear weapons doctrine “is a long way from being done. It has a lot of reviews to go through and several changes have already taken place.” Representative David Hobson (R-Ohio) said the plan was “disturbing” and represented “old, Cold War thinking.” He said Pentagon officials last week told him that discussions on the document were ongoing. “I'm hopeful more rational minds will look at this,” he said. “It is a very provocative proposal.” The draft document would provide instructions on obtaining approval to use nuclear weapons to stop an attack with a weapon of mass destruction. Leaders of hostile countries and terrorist groups must “believe the United States has both the ability and will to pre-empt or retaliate promptly with responses that are credible and effective,” the document states. The document has drawn criticism from nuclear arms control experts. Some said official plans for use of a nuclear weapon increase the chance they will be used, while others said the document makes it difficult to convince non-nuclear states not to manufacture nuclear weapons, the Post reported. Hobson said nuclear negotiations would be hard “with these kinds of policies out in public.” A former senior military official said provisions allowing for pre-emptive use of nuclear arms have been included in classified nuclear doctrine documents before. Including the language in an unclassified draft document “represents the lack of expertise on the part of some Pentagon staff members,” he said (Walter Pincus, Washington Post, Sept. 19).
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