NICK ARMSTRONG,
Sir, - Is the US government planning to use nuclear weapons?
I have looked on with horror over the last few days at lack of reaction to the leaked US government document - "Nuclear Posture Review". This is a position paper produced by the Pentagon which changes, in a very fundamental way, how nuclear weapons are perceived.
Up to now they were considered to be weapons of last resort - the threat of their use alone would be enough to stop an aggressor from attacking with their own nuclear weapons. The prospect of using these weapons in a limited nuclear war was one of the destabilising features that was creeping in at the end of the Cold War.
The new Pentagon review changes all this as it considers not only using nuclear weapons against countries with nuclear weapons but also those with none.The document also considers using small warheads against selected targets. This, it claims, would reduce "collateral damage". This claim flies in the face of scientific knowledge about the effects of nuclear weapons - e.g. a nuclear attack on a deep bunker with a small nuclear bomb will produce large amounts of radiation that will drift in the wind over a large area. This highly dangerous idea will also lower the nuclear threshold and make nuclear wars more likely.
If the government of another country, especially a developing country, suggested using nuclear weapons in this manner there would be an international outcry. The US government itself would hardly take a benign view of this matter.
It is now time for our Government to let the US know that this threat to world peace is not acceptable. Individuals and organisations that feel strongly about this should write letters of protest to the US Embassy. - Yours, etc.,
NICK ARMSTRONG,
Pine Copse Road,
Dundrum,
Dublin 16.