User:Isles/Preemptive strike policy goes nuclear

March 28, 2006

The joint chiefs of staff of the US military have been working on two doctrines to clarify their current position on the use of nuclear weapons. The first is called The Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations [(http://www.nukestrat.com/us/jcs/jp3-12_05.htm)] which states in the executive summary, that we will integrate our nuclear weapons into our conventional forces and utilize them in host nations when it furthers our political goals, we will attack non-state actors, states or combinations of states, based on our best intelligence of a threat. The working drafts of this document have been regularly published on the Pentagons website until recently when it was taken down along with several other policy papers after some publicity and concerns expressed by sixteen senators. 

The second major policy paper that the Joint Chiefs have been working and doing major operational test for is called JCS Strategic Deterrence Joint Operating Concept (JOC), prepared by STRATCOM. A draft of this offensive strike plan published in February 2004, describes the role of nuclear weapons as follows: “Nuclear weapons provide the President with the ultimate means to terminate conflict promptly on terms favorable to the United States. They cast a lengthy shadow over a rational adversary’s decision calculus when considering coercion, aggression, WMD employment, and escalatory courses of action. Nuclear weapons threaten destruction of an adversary’s most highly valued assets, including adversary WMD/E capabilities, critical industries, key resources, and means of political organization and control (including the adversary leadership itself). This includes destruction of targets otherwise invulnerable to conventional attack, e.g., hard and deeply buried facilities, “location uncertainty” targets, etc. Nuclear weapons reduce an adversary’s confidence in their ability to control wartime escalation.

These programs have undergone extensive testing and implementation over the last few years with very little notice from the public or media coverage. Isles 18:01, 29 March 2006 (UTC)