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CounterPunch
September
25, 2002
West Point Honors
Grad Says:
Bush is a Threat to World Peace
by DAVID WIGGINS
The Bush administration's policies are increasing
the risk of attack not particularly on US soldiers, but on US
citizens, and the continental United States. This administration's
policies are increasing the number of overt enemies of the United
States, the hostility of the enemies we do have, and the probability
that any response will be against American civilians not the
US military. In addition to the greater threat from other weapons
of mass destruction, it is increasingly likely that nuclear weapons
will destroy US cities. Even more concerning is the likelihood
that we will not know who is responsible.
Logic dictates that, all else equal,
one's risk increases if one's enemies increase, and if those
enemies become more hostile. Since 9/11, the Bush administration
has conducted a bizarre policy of calling nations enemies that
may not have considered themselves enemies, and inflaming the
antipathy of those that are hostile in some ways to the United
States. In January 2002, George W Bush proclaimed an 'Axis of
Evil' that included not only Iraq (who has never initiated an
attack against the United States) but also Iran and North Korea.
Iran and North Korea, while not allies, posed no imminent threat,
and were working with the United States in some areas including
the 'War on Terror" and in North Korea's case, nuclear non-proliferation.
Unlike the axis powers of World War II, these nations were not
cooperating in any general political or military sense. In May
2000, this 'Axis of Evil' was expanded to include Libya, Syria,
and Cuba. In July, the Rand Corporation, a Pentagon advisory
board, called Saudi Arabia an enemy. In September 2002, the Bush
administration's National Security Strategy initiated a policy
that makes any nation that could be interpreted to pose a future
threat to the United Sates a target of pre-emptive military strikes.
It further declared a policy of attempting to maintain US military
global dominance forever. With this new National Security Strategy,
no nation in the world can feel completely safe from military
attack from the United States.
In December 2001, the Bush administration
formally announced it's withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile
Treaty, and the 'Nuclear Posture Review' essentially eliminated
US participation in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Accordingly,
we should expect other nations to treat these treaties without
respect. We can expect international adherence to them in word
possibly, in deed probably not. Thus, we are now are at greater
risk from foreign nuclear proliferation and ballistic missiles.
A principle of military strategy is to
concentrate forces where the enemy is weak; conversely, to avoid
wasting resources on futile efforts. Since the first Gulf War,
it has been shown repeatedly in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and elsewhere,
to be a futile effort to attempt a direct battle with the US
military on any large scale. Any military or paramilitary commander
would be foolish to waste their resources in such an endeavor.
Anyone wishing to defeat the US military will be forced to attack
it in it's most vulnerable area - it's support, i.e., the US
economy, US factories, and US taxpayers. Ironically, the stronger
and more invulnerable the US military becomes, the more likely
future assaults will involve US civilians.
While bullets may be an effective way
to stop infantry, they are nearly useless when trying to destroy
an economy, a factory, or a base of taxpayer support. Hence the
likelihood that weapons of mass destruction will be used in this
role. Russian General Alexander Lebed claims that up to 100 Russian
'suitcase' nuclear bombs may be missing. The 1-kiloton nuclear
bombs, which weigh 60-100 pounds and can fit into a suitcase
or backpack, can kill 50,000-100,000 people and devastate a portion
of a city, according to Lebed. More recently, Petro Symonenko,
the Communist Party chief in the Ukraine, revealed that they
couldn't account for 200 nuclear weapons. Are there disgruntled
or financially desperate Russian officials who have access to
and would sell a nuclear device? Quite possibly there is. It
would be relatively easy to smuggle a 100 pound nuclear device
into the United States across our vast borders with Mexico or
Canada or even underwater in a small covert operation.
In one short year since the attacks on
the World Trade Center, we have witnessed a world that rallied
with the USA become, to a large degree, our enemy. George Bush
has proclaimed Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, and Cuba
to be our enemies. As far as we know, none of these nations was
involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Saudi Arabia
was called an enemy. Russia and China were targeted in the Nuclear
Posture Review. We now claim the right to pre-emptively attack
any nation we feel not based on any specific evidence - just
a suspicion. Now we have more enemies, our old enemies have been
provoked and everyone has been put on notice for a possible pre-emptive
attack. This naturally makes them more apt to pre-emptively attack
us. The US military is relatively invulnerable, so any attack
is more likely to involve the military's support system including
US civilians and industry. Finally, this type of attack would
by necessity involve weapons of mass destruction to be successful.
This all leads to the frightening possibility that if a nuclear
explosion destroyed a US city, we might not know who was responsible.
Our inevitable response would be likely to involve nuclear weapons
and, given that we were not sure who was responsible, we might
use nuclear weapons against an innocent nation. A cycle of more
retaliation on both sides could quickly spiral out of control
involving parties that initially were uninvolved, but acted pre-emptively
with nuclear weapons. It is not science fiction to imagine how
this type of scenario could lead to the downfall of civilization,
as we know it.
Certainly, since the development of atomic
weapons, the risk of a 'nuclear Armageddon' has been with us,
but minimizing that risk is in the best interests of all of humanity.
Discouraging nuclear nonproliferation, provoking those who may
have the means to retaliate, and establishing a precedent for
pre-emptive attacks dramatically increases the risk of a nuclear
assault on the US and a global doomsday scenario.
David Wiggins
is a West Pont honor graduate and an honors graduate of New York
Medical College. He left the Army as a Conscientious Objector
actively opposed Operation Desert Storm from the Saudi front
lines with Iraq. He is currently an Emergency Physician.
He can be reached at: dwiggmd@yahoo.com
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September
21 / 22, 2002
Alexander
Cockburn
An Entire
Class
of Thieves
Tom Gorman
The Press & Sabra
and Shatila
Amelia Peltz
Anniversary with Life
in Palestine
Susan Martinez
By the Hand
of the Father
Ben Tripp
Advice from
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Adam Engel
From Above:
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Chris Clarke
The Ann Coulter Test
Tariq Ali
Doing as the
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Mokhiber / Weissman
The Bush Victory
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Ralph Nader
Greed Without Limits
Thomas Croft
The Life of Jim Cummings
Anthony Gancarski
Concerned Citizen:
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Joan Hoff
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Norman Madarasz
Lessons from a Cyncial Master Jean
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Mitchel Cohen
Toxic Wastes
and
the New World Order
Peter Lee
Why Bush
Wants This War
Bruce Jackson
20 Questions
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War Against Arabs
Krystal Kyer
Greenwashing the Marketplace
September
19, 2002
Ron Jacobs
Cheney's
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Ilija Trojanow
/ Ranjit Hoskote
Who Cares
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Jordy Cummings
How
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Salam Rahal
The Rape
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Richard Falk
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War with
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Ralph Nader
How Congress
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Kurt Nimmo
Bush Senior:
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Rep. Cynthia
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Goodbye
to All That
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Cancerous
Air
Born Under a Bad Sky
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Smoking
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20 Years
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Thomas Mountain
September
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