WP, Pincus: House Proposes Commission to Assess Nuclear Forces

House Proposes Commission to Assess Nuclear Forces
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 29, 2005; Page A09


The House Armed Services Committee has proposed appointment of a civilian commission to help the Pentagon determine how to integrate nuclear and nonnuclear weapons in planning the nation's strategic strike forces for the next 20 years.

Since the Bush administration put forward its Nuclear Posture Review in December 2001 that called for transitioning from a nuclear-dominated strategic force to one with major conventional components, the Defense Department has wrestled with how to achieve that goal. The challenge is how to modernize or replace the Cold War strategic strike triad of bombers and land- and sea-based long-range missiles and its thousands of accompanying high-yield nuclear bombs and warheads. One goal of the posture review, according to the House committee report, was to develop capabilities "that would lessen the overall United States dependence on nuclear weapons."...

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Inclusion of the commission proposal in the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill, approved by the House Wednesday, illustrates congressional concern that there is a lack of basic future planning for the nation's nuclear arsenal in the aftermath of the posture review, a theme promoted over the past year by several House members including Rep. David L. Hobson (R-Ohio), who chairs the appropriations panel that funds the nuclear weapons programs.

"I think the time is now for a thoughtful and open debate on the role of nuclear weapons in our country's national security strategy," Hobson said in a speech in February. "Until we have a real debate and develop a comprehensive plan for the U.S. nuclear stockpile and the . . . weapons complex, we're left arguing over isolated projects."

The 12-member commission, which would be appointed by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld after consulting with the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, would help identify the requirements for the new, mixed strategic forces and the changes then to be made in the nuclear stockpile based on threats extending to the year 2025. The panel would also deal with restructuring the present nuclear weapons manufacturing complex, which was established almost 50 years ago to build thousands of warheads. It now requires a thorough overhaul but awaits a determination as to how large a stockpile of nuclear weapons the United States plans to maintain....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/28/AR2005052800817.html?sub=AR

The longer the lead these lunatics get, the harder its going to be to shut down this "integration" of nukes with tactical forces.

Of course, if you can't trick kids into joining, and you can't afford to pay the political costs of a draft, just replace all those boots on the ground with small nukes. That'll teach them there insturgeants, you betcha!

Will this madness NEVER end?

They mention reducing the reliance on nuclear weapons, and restructuring the infrastructure to lessen the number of nukes.

All of which is a good thing, as long as they get away from our moronic president's insistence that nukes area first strike weapon (God, I so want to punch him every time he asserts that...)