{"id":106360,"date":"2018-02-26T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=106360"},"modified":"2018-02-10T16:44:23","modified_gmt":"2018-02-10T16:44:23","slug":"pentagon-to-allow-nuclear-response-to-non-nuclear-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/02\/pentagon-to-allow-nuclear-response-to-non-nuclear-attacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon to Allow Nuclear Response to Non-Nuclear Attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

8 Feb 2018 – Amid the media frenzy surrounding the Nunes-Trump memo, the Pentagon officially released its 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) last week. The NPR calls for the development of leaner, meaner nuclear weapons and\u00a0lowers the threshold for the use of nukes<\/a>. Donald Trump must be thrilled. During the presidential campaign, he\u00a0questioned a senior foreign policy adviser about nuclear weapons three times during a briefing, asking, \u201cIf we had them why can\u2019t we use them?\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Featured image is from rudall30 \/ Shutterstock.<\/p><\/div>\n

The NPR calls for \u201clow-yield\u201d nuclear weapons on submarine-launched ballistic missiles \u2014 weapons that could cause as much damage as the bombs the United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.<\/p>\n

For the first time, the new NPR states that the United States could use nuclear weapons in response to non-nuclear attacks, including cyberattacks, in \u201cextreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States, its allies and partners.\u201d\u00a0This new strategy opens the door to first-use of nuclear weapons, which is\u00a0prohibited<\/a>\u00a0under international law.<\/p>\n

In its 1996 advisory opinion, the\u00a0International Court of Justice (ICJ)\u00a0concluded that while the use of nuclear weapons might be lawful when used in self-defense if the survival of the nation were at stake, a first-strike use would not be.<\/p>\n

The ICJ held in its \u201cLegality of the Threat or Use of\u00a0Nuclear Weapons\u201d case that \u201cthe threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, and in particular the principles and rules of humanitarian law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever,\u201d the IJC continued, \u201cthe Court cannot conclude definitively whether the threat or use of nuclear weapons would be lawful or unlawful in an extreme circumstance of self-defence, in which the very survival of a State would be at stake.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Framing Russia and China as Nuclear Threats<\/strong><\/p>\n

Russia, China and North Korea are singled out as potential nuclear threats in the NPR. The document \u201cerroneously states that the United States needs new nuclear weapons because \u2018China is expanding and modernizing its considerable nuclear forces\u2019 and is pursuing \u2018entirely new nuclear capabilities,’\u201d\u00a0according to the Union of Concerned Scientists<\/a>\u00a0(UCS).<\/p>\n

Gregory Kulacki<\/strong>, China project manager at the UCS Global Security Program and author of the UCS\u2019s newly released white paper, said,<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no evidence that nuclear weapons are becoming more prominent in China\u2019s military strategy or that China has changed its longstanding no-first-use policy.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The NPR has alarmed foreign leaders. Mohammad Javad Zarif<\/strong>, foreign minister of Iran,\u00a0tweeted<\/a>\u00a0that the NPR brings \u201chumankind closer to annihilation.\u201d The United States is \u201cshamelessly threatening Russia with a new atomic weapon,\u201d Iranian president Hassan Rouhani<\/strong>\u00a0stated<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same people who supposedly believe that using weapons of mass destruction is a crime against humanity are talking about new weapons to threaten or use against rivals,\u201d he added.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ren Guoqiang<\/strong>, a spokesman for the Chinese defense ministry,\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in a statement,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope the US side will discard its \u2018cold-war mentality,\u2019 [and] shoulder its own special and primary responsibility for nuclear disarmament.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Both Beijing and Moscow reaffirmed that nuclear weapons are not \u201cfirst strike\u201d weapons. Russia\u2019s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov<\/strong> stressed that nuclear weapons are only a defensive deterrent. He\u00a0listed<\/a>\u00a0the following \u201centirely defensive scenarios\u201d for the threshold use of nuclear weapons: \u201cin response to an act of aggression against Russia and (or) against our allies if nuclear or other types of mass destruction weapons are used, and also \u2026 with use of conventional arms but only in case our state\u2019s very existence would be in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where Is This Coming From?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Keith Payne<\/strong>, president of the National Institute for Public Policy, was one of the key drafters of the NPR. In 1980, Payne astoundingly claimed in Foreign Policy that the United States could win a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.\u00a0US casualties, Payne argued, could be limited to \u201capproximately 20 million people,\u201d which, he called, \u201ca level compatible with national survival and recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Derek Johnson<\/strong>, executive director of Global Zero, the international movement for the elimination of nuclear weapons,\u00a0said in a statement<\/a>\u00a0that the<\/p>\n

NPR is \u201ca radical plan written by extreme elements and nuclear ideologues in Trump\u2019s inner circle who believe nuclear weapons are a wonder drug that can solve our national security challenges. They aren\u2019t and they can\u2019t.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, a retired senior Army officer\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0The American Conservative that the lower-yield warheads give Trump \u201ca kind of gateway drug for nuclear war.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis plan would be troubling under any Administration,\u201d Johnson observed, \u201cbut given this President\u2019s consistent and unabashed displays of ignorance, ballistic tendencies and dehumanizing world views, we should all be on red alert.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Johnson expressed support for legislation that would restrict the first use of nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

Sixteen senators\u00a0wrote in a letter<\/a>\u00a0to Trump on January 29,<\/p>\n

\u201c[Y]our NPR would undermine decades of U.S. leadership on efforts to reduce and eventually eliminate the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The senators noted that the NPR fails to mention Article VI of the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which enshrines a commitment \u201cto pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament.\u201d The United States is a party to the NPT.<\/p>\n

A \u201csenior nuclear thinker and NPR critic\u201d explained how the document\u2019s recommendations were developed.<\/p>\n

\u201c[T]he story you won\u2019t hear is how this really came about,\u201d he\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0The American Conservative.\u00a0\u201cOne day, Sean Hannity<\/strong> got on television and talked about how we need more nuclear weapons and Donald Trump heard this and went over to the Pentagon and presto, we got Keith Payne and his crew. That\u2019s the truth, and that\u2019s what got us to where we are.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently, Hannity, whose hype on Fox News about the Nunes-Trump memo continues to poison the national debate, is becoming Trump\u2019s main foreign policy guru.<\/p>\n

Sixty percent of Americans don\u2019t trust Trump with nuclear weapons, according to a recent NBC News\/Washington Post\u00a0poll<\/a>.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________<\/p>\n

Marjorie Cohn<\/em> is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, deputy secretary general of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and an advisory board member of Veterans for Peace. The second, updated edition of her book,\u00a0<\/em>Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues<\/a>, was published in November. Visit her website:\u00a0MarjorieCohn.com<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 globalresearch.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

8 Feb 2018 – For the first time, the new NPR states that the United States could use nuclear weapons in response to non-nuclear attacks, including cyberattacks, in \u201cextreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States, its allies and partners.\u201d This new strategy opens the door to first-use of nuclear weapons, which is prohibited under international law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":106361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weapons-of-mass-destruction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}