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May 16, 2002
Steve Perry
Unsafe at Any Speed:
Youth, Sex and the Heresies
of Judith Levine
May 15, 2002
Ahmad Faruqui
Revisiting
Camp David
Rick Giombetti
Spiderman v. Pentagon:
Working Class Hero Battles Corrupt Defense Contractors
Stanton / Madsen
When the
War Hits Home:
Planning for Martial Law, Telegovernance and Suspension of Elections
May 14, 2002
Jacob Levich
Leaving the Truth Out?
Alternative Online Publication
Tells the Big Lie about Palestine
Michael Colby
Bush's
Cuba Blunder
Dave Marsh
Scapegoats: the Music Industry's War
on Cassettes
Jensen / Mahajan
US Power
Mideast Power Plays
May 13, 2002
Robert Fisk
Why Does John Malkovich
Want to Kill Me?
Mokhiber / Weissman
IMF
and World Bank:
Out of Control
Dean Baker
Will Darth Vader do Time?
The Enron Saga Continues
Nelson Valdés
American
Democracy:
A Lesson for Cubans
May 12, 2002
Bernard Weiner
Why Is America Acting Like This? A
Letter to European Friends
John Patrick Leary
Aiding Colombia
Kathleen Christison
Israel
and Ethics
May 11, 2002
Joady Guthrie
The Holy Lands:
A Peace Vision
Patrick Cockburn
Bombing
Iraq:
the Pentagon Prepares a Prolonged Campaign
George Sunderland
CounterPunch Special
Our
Vichy Congress: Israel's Stranglehold on Capitol Hill
Resources:
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About 9/11
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Five
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By Alexander
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Photos by Allan Sekula
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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Reviews of Gore:
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May
16, 2002
Bush-Putin Agreement
Nuclear
Dangers Remain
by David Krieger
When major newspapers around the world trumpet
headlines such as "U.S., Russia to Cut Nuclear Arms,"
it should be cause for excitement, even celebration. Undoubtedly
most people will greet this news with a sense of relief that
we are moving in the right direction. Certainly it is better
to have less nuclear weapons than more of them. But before we
bring out the champagne, it would be a good idea to read the
fine print and examine more closely what the treaty will and
will not do.
The treaty calls for reducing the size
of the actively deployed US and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals
from some 6,000 weapons on each side today to between 1,700 and
2,200 by the year 2012. This is approximately a two-thirds reduction
in actively deployed long-range nuclear weapons, a move that
is certainly positive.
The treaty, however, has serious flaws.
The nuclear weapons taken off active deployment will not necessarily
be destroyed. It will be up to each country to determine what
to do with these weapons. Many, if not most, of them will be
placed in storage, ready to be rapidly redeployed if either country
decides to do so.
There is also no immediacy to moving
from current levels of strategic nuclear weapons to the promised
lower levels. According to the terms of the treaty, each country
needs only to reduce to the agreed upon levels by the year 2012.
That also happens to be the year that the treaty terminates unless
extended.
The United States has been a proponent
of making the nuclear reductions reversible. The major problem
with this approach is that it leads the Russians to do the same,
and thereby increases the likelihood that these weapons could
fall into the hands of terrorists. It would be better for both
countries to permanently dismantle the nuclear weapons removed
from active deployment, thereby removing the risk of theft by
terrorists.
The treaty deals only with strategic
or long-range nuclear weapons. It does not seek to control or
reduce tactical or short-range nuclear weapons. Each side still
retains thousands of these weapons, and there is serious concern
about the Russian arsenal's vulnerability to theft or unauthorized
use. The US Nuclear Posture Review, made partially public in
January 2002, called for the development of so-called "bunker
buster" nuclear weapons that would be far more likely to
actually be used than the larger long-range nuclear weapons.
As we evaluate this treaty, we should
remember that even at the lowest level of 1,700 strategic nuclear
weapons on each side, there will still be a sufficient number
to destroy more than 3,000 cities. The use of far fewer nuclear
weapons than this would put an end to civilization as we know
it.
President Bush claims, "This treaty
will liquidate the legacy of the Cold War." This remains
to be seen. By designing a treaty that will hold so many nuclear
weapons in reserve and retain so many on active "hair-trigger"
alert, the two sides are not exactly demonstrating a level of
trust commensurate with their current friendly relations.
When the treaty is examined closely,
it has more the feel of a public relations effort than a solid
step toward reducing nuclear dangers and fulfilling the long-standing
promises of the two countries to engage in good faith negotiations
for nuclear disarmament. Unfortunately, even if this treaty is
ratified and enters into force, we will remain in the danger
zone that nuclear weapons pose to humanity and all life.
We still need an agreement that provides
for deeper, more comprehensive and irreversible cuts with a far
greater sense of urgency. Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin need to return
to the negotiating table.
David Krieger
is president of the Nuclear
Age Peace Foundation. He can be contacted at dkrieger@napf.org
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