AFF/NUCLEAR: GENERIC INHERENCY EVIDENCE

USA CONTINUES TO KEEP NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND TO PRODUCE NEW WARHEADS

Karina Wood, Peace Action Education Fund July 1999. The Road to Nuclear Abolition http://www.webcom.com/peaceact/abolition_fs.html //VT2002acsln

Rather than dismantle weapons that are not needed, the United States plans to retain some 14,000 weapons and spend $45 billion on maintaining and improving the stockpile over the next ten years. This ambitious nuclear weapons research and development program, dubbed "Stockpile Stewardship," includes elaborate facilities for designing and testing nuclear weapons without traditional nuclear testing. Moreover, after spending over $4 trillion on nuclear weapons and their legacy since 1940, the Department of Energy plans to resume fabricating plutonium pits for around 80 new nuclear warheads a year at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

WE HAVE OVER 150,000 HIROSHIMA-SIZED BOMBS

Rockefeller Family Fund, May, 2001; One Step Forward, Two Steps Back... http://dontblowit.policy.net/ //VT2002acsln

There are over 36,000 nuclear weapons around the world. Thousands of them are on "alert status," ready to be launched in minutes. Our government alone spends over $30 billion annually just to maintain the Pentagon's nuclear arsenal of over 12,000 nuclear weapons. That's the equivalent of 150,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs.

USA POLICIES HAVE UNDERMINED MANY IMPORTANT NON-PROLIFERATION INTERESTS

William C. Potter and Jonathan B. Tucker, the Monterey Institute's Center for Nonproliferation Studies, May 28, 1999; CNS Reports: Weapons Spreading http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/tuckpot.htm //VT2002acsln

Recent U.S. decisions that have undermined the nuclear nonproliferation system include discounting the adverse effects of NATO enlargement on nonproliferation cooperation with Russia, waiving tough economic sanctions against India and Pakistan after their nuclear tests, postponing a Senate vote on ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and ignoring the steps that must be taken immediately to prevent defections from a very fragile NPT.

BUSH MILITARY PHILOSOPHY MARCHES IN LOCKSTEP TO AN OUTDATED TUNE

Jeremy Bratt; Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellow at the Council for a Livable World. February 15, 2001, The San Diego Union-Tribune SECTION: OPINION;Pg. B-11:7; B-7:1; B-9:2,6 HEADLINE: Yesterday's strategies, tomorrow's wars //VT2002acsln

The media often speculate about the prospect of a power struggle among Bush's top advisers, and in the area of foreign policy, some in the Bush Cabinet have real disagreements about America's role in the world. But unfortunately, in the most important area of national security strategy, determining the role of America's military, there is no disagreement. Bush's advisers are marching in lock step, and they are marching to an outdated tune.

BUSH POLICIES WILL UTILIZE OUTDATED COLD WAR THINKING

Challenges to America in the 21st century are many and varied. Will the Pentagon respond by recognizing these threats and moving to meet them, or will it continue to embrace a strategy born in the Cold War? Only time -- and the Bush administration's review of the military -- will tell. However, if the public statements of his top advisers are any indication, President Bush appears prepared to confront the next century's security challenges with last century's strategy and tactics.