U.C. San Diego Physics Professor Warns of coming nuclear war

[whistle]

...in Iran by suggesting that: "Voting Republican in November Is Voting To Wage Nuclear War".

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Voting against nuclear war with Iran
By Jorge Hirsch

10/16/06 "Information Clearing House " -- -- The outcome of the November election is likely to determine whether or not the US goes to war with Iran before President Bush leaves office. For multiple reasons recounted below such war will with very high probability include the US use of tactical nuclear weapons. In casting or not casting a vote in November, each of us will contribute to determine events of potential consequences immensely larger than local taxes, illegal immigration or even the Iraq war. Crossing the nuclear threshold in a war against Iran will trigger a chain reaction that in weeks, years or decades could lead with high probability to global nuclear war and widespread destruction of life on the planet.

The Bush administration has radically redefined America's nuclear use policy <1>, <2>: US nuclear weapons are no longer regarded as qualitatively different from conventional weapons. Many actions of the administration in recent years strongly suggest that an imminent US nuclear use is being planned for, and this was confirmed by Bush's explicit refusal to rule out a US nuclear strike against Iran. We have all been put on notice. The fact that North Korea is now a nuclear country does not change the agenda - quite the contrary.

There were fears that the US would use nuclear weapons in the Iraq attack <1>, <2>, which did not materialize, hence some will argue that the current fears of nuclear use against Iran may not materialize either. Some will argue that there were many other occasions in the past 60 years where the US appeared to come close to using nuclear weapons and did not <1>, <2>, that the threshold for using nuclear weapons always was and remains extraordinarily high, and that the US nuclear "saber rattling" is just trickery to scare our opponents ( "madman theory"). These arguments are wrong. The US is much closer than it has ever been since Nagasaki to using nuclear weapons again. This year for the first time in its history the American Physical Society, representing 40,000 members of the profession that created nuclear weapons, issued a statement of deep concern on this matter: "The American Physical Society is deeply concerned about the possible use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states and for pre-emptive counter-proliferation purposes".

In the case of Iraq, our adversary was so weak that there was no way a US nuclear weapon use could have been justified in the eyes of the world. Iran is different: it possesses missiles that could strike US forces in Iraq and the Persian Gulf as well as Israeli cities, and a large conventional army. 150,000 US soldiers in Iraq will be at great risk if war with Iran erupts, and Americans will support a nuclear strike on Iran once the administration creates a situation where it can argue that such action will save a large number of American or allies' lives.

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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15318.htm

[Dudley_DUright]

1. Here is a link to the APS statement on the "Use of Nuclear Weapons"

As a member of APS, I am more than "deeply concerned" with these wackjobs currently in office.

http://www.aps.org/statements/06_1.cfm