The nuclear terror of Bush ‘negligence’ policy
Marko Beljac 16/508
It was not widely reported, but in February the Bush Administration enacted what may turn out to be one of the most significant policy decisions it has made in response to 9/11. President Bush signed new presidential guidance that provides an entirely new mission for US nuclear forces. The White House has effectively developed a new policy on the deterrence of nuclear terrorism. The policy was announced in a little-noted closed speech given by Stephen Hadley, President Bush’s national security adviser, at Stanford University. He stated that, ‘as part of this strategy to combat nuclear terrorism, the President has approved a new declaratory policy to help deter terrorists from using weapons of mass destruction against the United States, our friends, and allies’. He also stated that, ‘as many of you know, the United States has made clear for many years that it reserves the right to respond with overwhelming force to the use of weapons of mass destruction against the United States, our people, our forces and our friends and allies’. The phrase ‘overwhelming force’ has always been understood to refer to the employment of nuclear weapons.