[R-G] Senator Kennedy warns against use of nukes on Iraq

[DavidMcR at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/30/03 4:12:06 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
geese4peace at yahoo.com writes:

<< 
 -"The President has not made a case that the threat to
 our national security from Iraq is so imminent that we
 even need to go to war -- let alone take the nuclear
 genie out of the bottle." 
 
 http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_150521,00050001.htm
 
 The Hindustan Times
 January 30, 2003
 
 Senator Kennedy warns against use of nukes on Iraq 
 Press Trust of India
 Washington, January 29 
  
 A veteran US senator has warned President George W
 Bush against any use of 'pre-emptive' tactical nuclear
 weapons on Iraq, saying it would carry the seeds of a
 world disaster. 
 Initiating the use of nuclear weapons would make a
 conflict with Iraq potentially catastrophic,
 Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy said in remarks
 published on Wednesday.
 
 He was reacting to recent media reports that US might
 use tactical nuclear weapons against Iraq.
 
 He said the reports should set off alarm bells that
 this could not only be the wrong war at the wrong
 time, but could quickly spin out of control.
 
 Using the nation's nuclear arsenal in this
 unprecedented way would be the most fateful decision
 since the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, he wrote in Los
 Angeles Times, which first broke the news about a
 possible pre-emptive use of nukes in Iraq.
 
 Even contemplating the first-strike use of nuclear
 weapons under current circumstances and against a
 non-nuclear nation dangerously blurs the crucial and
 historical distinction between conventional and
 nuclear arms, Kennedy said, adding, "in the case of
 Iraq, it is preposterous."
 
 Warning that nuclear weapons can threaten the survival
 of humanity, he said they should be used only in the
 most dire circumstances, "for example, if the
 existence of our nation is threatened."
 
 "We can fight and win a war in Iraq with precision
 bombing and sophisticated new conventional weapons.
 The President has not made a case that the threat to
 our national security from Iraq is so imminent that we
 even need to go to war -- let alone take the nuclear
 genie out of the bottle," Kennedy said.
 
  >>