New Recruits to Denuclearization Cause Offer Hope for Real Debate, at Last, on Clinton’s Sub Rosa Policy

(Washington, D.C.): An international initiative aimed
at ridding the world of nuclear weapons that is being
spearheaded by a group of former high-ranking American
military officers was unveiled today in a front-page Washington
Post article and an event at the National Press
Club. According to the Post, some sixty admirals
and generals from around the world will issue a statement
tomorrow “call[ing] on the five declared
nuclear powers and three undeclared powers to begin
moving toward abolition [of nuclear weapons] by
negotiating new treaties and removing nuclear warheads
from missiles.”

The Center for Security Policy vehemently
rejects the view expressed in the Post article
by General George Lee Butler (USAF, Ret.) —
former Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Air Command —
to the effect that: “Nuclear weapons are inherently
dangerous, hugely expensive, militarily inefficient and
morally indefensible.” The Center,
nonetheless, welcomes the visibility these former flag
officers will give to such propositions for one simple
reason: As the Center has documented in numerous analyses
published over the past four years, these or similar
sentiments have done much to shape the Clinton
presidency’s national security policies.

To date, however, these “denuclearization”
policies have largely been pursued sub rosa —
out of the public eye and without serious, informed
debate. To the contrary, in congressional testimony and
official pronouncements, Administration spokesmen have
usually declared that the United States will require a
credible nuclear deterrent for the foreseeable future.
This is especially true when they are arguing against
missile defense programs (to wit: “Deterrence has
served us well and will continue to do so”) and for
unverifiable, ineffectual international bans on chemical
and biological weapons (e.g., “We can always deter
the use of such weapons against us by threatening to
resort to nuclear retaliation.”)

The Clinton Administration has, nonetheless, taken
steps that are systematically and inexorably pushing the
United States along the path of unilateral
denuclearization. It remains to be seen whether the
retired American flag officers would advocate such a step
even if other nuclear powers or nuclear wannabe states
decline to eliminate their own nuclear arsenals. What
they have done already, however, is create a chance for
the American people to examine whether the United States
would be well-served by abandoning its deterrent
capabilities either on a unilateral or multilateral (but
clearly less than global) basis.

The Bottom Line

With a little luck, the most important — if
altogether unintended — contribution that will be made
to U.S. security by General Butler et.al. will be to make
it harder for the Clinton Administration to proceed in
its second term with the radical denuclearization agenda
that it has been stealthily implementing over the past
four years. At a minimum, the harsh spotlight
their initiative will put on that agenda may finally
bring into sharp focus for the United States Senate and
the American people it represents the momentous
implications of impending choices concerning President
Clinton’s new national security team, the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty and the Departments of Energy and Defense
Budgets.

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