<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4522.1800" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"The Washington Times has called on the Bush administration the use of nuclear weapons against Afghanistan and Iraq. Absurd? Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld had the question put to them directly and neither would rule out the use of nuclear bombs as an option."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>maybe their refusal to forswear the use of nukes is simply aggressive posturing, in line with tactical advice of Eagleburger, who said that at times it's useful to act irrational.  but it worries me that they believe that they can even get away with talking about the use of nukes.  the development of smaller nukes will take time, but then this is portrayed as a long-term (infinite) struggle.  and, what if terrorist tactics escalate into bioweapons?  "they use theirs, we'll use ours."  I really don't think this is simply alarmist fretting, and that it's a good idea to at least take them seriously enough to attack the shift in what they regard as legitimate strategic options.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Randy Earnest</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>----- Original Message ----- </FONT> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>From: "Doug Henwood" <</FONT><A href="mailto:dhenwood@panix.com"><FONT face=Arial size=2>dhenwood@panix.com</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=2>></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>To: <</FONT><A href="mailto:lbo-talk@lists.panix.com"><FONT face=Arial size=2>lbo-talk@lists.panix.com</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=2>></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2001 4:03 PM</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Subject: Re: Operation Infinite Justice</FONT></DIV></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial><BR><FONT size=2></FONT></FONT></DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> Randy Earnest wrote:<BR>> <BR>> >the tactical nuke<BR>> >strikes Counterpunch discusses this week  </FONT><A href="http://www.counterpunch.org"><FONT face=Arial size=2>www.counterpunch.org</FONT></A><BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>> <BR>> How the hell do they know? What's the point of this sort of thing?<BR>> <BR>> Doug<BR>> </FONT></BODY></HTML>