Free Republic

From the April 8, 2002, issue of National Review he debate over the Bush administration's Nuclear Posture Review has been hysterical even by the usual standards of any discussion involving the word "nuclear." The classified review was leaked on the eve of Dick Cheney's Middle East trip, in an obvious bid to embarrass the administration and wrong-foot it as it attempted to build international support for overthrowing Saddam Hussein. The press has been distinctly incurious about the source of the leak, eager to pound the administration for, in the words of the New York Times, wanting to make America "a...

What will deter a Saddam Hussein or an Osama bin Laden from using chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons? he Iranians are apoplectic. The New York Times is indignant. The Arms Control Association is in a dither. And the Russians and the Chinese are demanding answers. What has gotten so many parties riled up? Why, the leak of portions of the Bush administration's highly classified Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), of course. Most of the anger has centered upon the allegation that the United States is developing contingency plans for using nuclear weapons against seven states — China, Russia, Iraq, North Korea,...