WASHINGTON (KRT) — Bush administration officials defended a revised nuclear arms policy Sunday, saying all options should be considered for retaliation against nations such as Iraq and North Korea that might use weapons of mass destruction.
The new policy review elevates conflicts with six nations — China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria — as scenarios meriting immediate consideration for a possible nuclear response. Conflict with Russia was regarded as a less likely “potential” threat.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the new nuclear posture was part of an ongoing review of military options, and was not a targeting strategy.
“There is less here than meets the eye,” he said. “Right now, today, there is not a single nation on the face of the Earth being targeted by U.S. nuclear weapons on a day-to-day basis. We just don’t do that.”
Other administration officials said the review meant nuclear retaliation should be an option if an adversary uses nuclear, biological, chemical or conventional-explosive weapons of mass destruction.
Commentators in nations identified by the review reacted by accusing the United States of seeking world domination, while allies in Britain and Italy accepted the Bush administration’s statements that it was nothing more than routine military planning.
The policy review discusses nuclear retaliation for attacks with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons on allies such as Taiwan, Israel and South Korea as well as on the United States.
White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that such an approach was consistent with the traditional deterrence role nuclear weapons play in U.S. strategic thinking.
“No one should be surprised that the United States worries about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” said Rice. “It has been longstanding American policy that the president reserves his options on determining how to respond should some state use weapons of mass destruction.”
With four Middle Eastern states — Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria — mentioned in the review, news of the report could complicate Vice President Richard Cheney’s visit to the region this week.
Administration officials have said Cheney would discuss President Bush’s characterization of Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an “axis of evil” with the Middle Eastern leaders. He is also planning to press them for support on toppling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the U.S. officials said.
Nuclear retaliation was implicitly threatened against Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War when U.S. officials said allied forces would take “the strongest possible response” if Baghdad used chemical or biological weapons.
Though the review describes efforts to develop bunker-busting nuclear missiles that could wipe out deeply-buried arsenals of biological or chemical weapons, Powell said the United States was not developing new atomic weapons. He said the administration was looking instead at improving or reworking existing nuclear weapons for the task.
He also said the United States was not considering a resumption of nuclear weapons testing.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on CNN’s Late Edition that the review was a policy guidance tool rather than a plan for the use of nuclear weapons.
“This preserves for the president all the options that a president would want to have in case this country or our friends and allies were attacked with weapons of mass destruction, be they nuclear, biological, chemical or, for that matter, high explosives,” Gen. Myers said.