Nuclear Terrorism

It's like a magic trick, really. President Bush and his cohorts scare the crap out of the American public by deftly pointing their hand at Iran and screaming "MUSHROOM CLOUD." Nevermind that Iran doesn't have any nukes. Don't let the facts get in the way, right? As long as you're worried and scared they can continue with business as usual.

In my last post I highlighted some very scary nuclear accidents that have occurred. Many of these were initially covered up. But what's even more disturbing is our actual use of these weapons to threaten others. The official definition of terrorism found in Army manuals is basically the use or threat of force to attain political, ideological, or religious goals. So what greater terrorist act could there be than threatening to use nuclear weapons against someone? If I rob a bank with a loaded weapon--whether I ever intend to fire it or not--I will be arrested for armed robbery. It is understood that the mere threat of the gun is sufficient enough to intimidate people. What if it's not a handgun in the local bank, but a nuclear weapon pointed at the world? Isn't that a use of nuclear weapons? Like the last post, the information below can be found in Weird History 101 by Richard Stephens:

More than a third of a million people were killed by the two nuclear bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. Since then more than 1,800 nuclear explosions have occurred on earth (about half of them set off by the United States).

• In 1950, President Truman publicly announced that he was considering using nuclear weapons in Korea.
• Then in 1954, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles offered to give three atomic bombs to France to use at Dienbienphu in Vietnam, but the French refused.
• In 1958, President Eisenhower got the Joint Chiefs of Staff to commit themselves to a plan to use nukes if the Chinese tried to occupy two islands--Quemoy and Matsu--that lie just off the Chinese coast
• Three years later in 1961, the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended to Kennedy that they should be used if the Chinese tried to do anything about the proposed U.S. occupation of Laos. Instead, Kennedy decided not to occupy Laos.
• America came to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
• General Westmoreland, in his memoirs, revealed that the use of tactical nuclear weapons was considered when Khe Sanh was under siege in 1968.
• H.R. Halderman wrote in his memoirs that within months of taking office, President Nixon and Secretary Kissinger began secretly threatening the North Vietnamese with their use. They also secretly said this to the Soviets and the Chinese. This went on at least until the December 1972 bombings of Hanoi. Other sources reveal plans were drawn up to use nuclear devices on rail lines and on the Ho Chi Minh trail.
• It's reported that during the Cold War, NATO buried tactical nukes in what was then West Germany so that if the Soviets invaded from East Germany, these bombs could be set off from a remote location.
• It recently was revealed that President Reagan strongly believed that the United States was on the verge of fighting a nuclear battle with the Soviet Union. He further believed that in accordance with biblical prophecy, the "Evil Empire" would invade Israel, that America and the Soviets would nuke it out at Armageddon, and that Jesus would then descend from heaven. So while Soviet leader Premier Gorbachev was talking about trying to save the world from nuclear holocaust by eliminating these weapons, Reagan thought they were a good thing and necessary to fulfill prophecy and bring about Christ's return.
• And General Norman Schwarzkopf testified before a Senate committee that the United States threatened to nuke Iraq during the Persian Gulf War if they used chemical weapons.

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