Bush Calls For New Generation Of Nuclear Weapons -- For U.S.

by Michelle Ciarrocca

(IPS) -- Under the radar of most news outlets, United Nation members will be meeting over the next week to discuss the progress made and challenges ahead in their commitment "to pursue negotiations in good faith" towards a nuclear weapons-free world under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The meetings are in preparation for the 2005 review conference.

Unfortunately, a nuclear weapons-free world doesn't appear to be on the U.S. agenda.

In his statement presented to the UN, John Bolton, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, claimed that, "the central bargain of the NPT is that if non-nuclear weapons states renounce the pursuit of nuclear weapons, they may gain assistance in developing civilian nuclear power."

However, the greater "bargain" within the treaty is the understanding that the non-nuclear weapons states give up their quest for nuclear weapons while the nuclear weapons states are working towards nuclear disarmament.

Bolton was quick to point out that Iran, Iraq and Libya have all been in violation of their treaty obligations while North Korea pulled out of the treaty all together. "There is a crisis of NPT noncompliance, and the challenge before us is to devise ways to ensure full compliance with the Treaty's non-proliferation objectives. Without such compliance by all members, confidence in the security benefits derived from the NPT will erode," he warned. Iraq has no nuclear weapons.

Libya has been trying to shed its rogue nation image and join the international community. In addition to recent meetings between Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and European Union leaders, Libya voluntarily dismantled its nuclear weapons program and has allowed UN International Atomic Energy Agency weapons inspectors inside the country.

Iran has permitted more inspections of its facilities, and is preparing to give the IAEA a full declaration of its nuclear program in mid May.

And six-party talks with North Korea are ongoing, and scheduled to continue later this month. Clearly more needs to happen with each of these nations to ensure they are serious about relinquishing their nuclear pursuits, but progress is being made one step at a time.

While Bolton condemns particular treaty members for not complying with the "non-proliferation objectives" he gives no mention of the failings of the Bush administration to follow through with its treaty obligations.

Far from dismantling and abolishing the U.S. nuclear arsenal, the Bush administration's Nuclear Posture Review, released in January 2002, was a foreshadowing of a new nuclear era in which the once-termed "weapon of last resort" has turned into a usable, necessary tool in the anti-terror arsenal.

President Bush's 2005 budget request of more than $19 billion for nuclear weapons functions represents a 7.9 percent increase over current funding levels. As the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation notes, "the Bush administration has taken a number of steps toward building a new generation of nuclear weapons, resuming nuclear weapons explosive testing and using nuclear weapons in future conflicts."

Bolton pointed to the nuclear arms reduction treaty signed by Russian President Putin and President Bush as evidence of the Bush administration's commitment to disarmament. The treaty reduces each nation's arsenals of strategic nuclear weapons by two-thirds, to fewer than 2,200 each over the next decade.

However, by taking ten years to make the proposed reductions, allowing both sides to keep thousands of their withdrawn warheads in "reserve" rather than destroying them, and giving either party the right to withdraw from the agreement on just 90 days notice, the Pentagon has preserved its ability to rapidly reverse the Bush administration's proposed reductions in the U.S. arsenal whenever it wants to, even as it continues to seek new types of nuclear weapons.

As South Korean Ambassador Kim Sam-hoon noted at the UN, "the Nuclear Weapon States have an obligation to more seriously take up their share of the bargain, namely, to fulfill the nuclear disarmament obligations under Article VI of the Treaty. We recall that the Nuclear Weapon States made an unequivocal commitment to nuclear disarmament ... The Nuclear Weapon States will be able to advocate the merits of non-proliferation with stronger moral authority when they demonstrate greater vigor and resolve in fulfilling their nuclear disarmament obligations."