[ RadSafe ] Red Herring?

[Earley, Jack N]

"A report produced for the American Association for the Advancement of
Science concluded that the new warhead program may never achieve the
cost savings claimed by the White House, that the supposed safety and
reliability improvements are unlikely to be realized until later
generations of the weapons are developed, and that any U.S. effort to
restart nuclear bomb production could provoke an international arms
race. One of the report's sharpest criticisms was that the Bush
administration is pushing the new warhead program without having
detailed a new strategy for how the weapons would be used or providing a
rationale for maintaining a large nuclear weapons stockpile."

A smoked (red) herring was pulled across a track to distract the hounds
during a hunt. And it seems oddly coincidental that just about the time
that Congress is looking to pull the plug on spending in Iraq, a new
spending strategy suddenly appears on the horizon. Reagan used Star Wars
to essentially bankrupt the Soviet Union, but I have to assume that
other countries are going to see the same problems that were identified
in this report and avoid taking the bait--with the possible exception of
a couple of countries that are only suspected of developing nuclear
capability. So is this just another economic red herring, or an attempt
at provoking certain countries to show their hands? If both attempts
fail, will there be yet another fish tale to stimulate a pre-election
economy?
 
 
Jack Earley
Health Physicist
509.372.9532