Originally posted by die_another_day
AFP
Wow... just declassified.
I wonder how many more proposals of nuking have been made on the Middle East.
That depends on how you define a "proposal". If you mean "How many times has a member of the JCS gone to the President and suggested, in all
seriousness, the deployment of nuclear weapons against targets in the Middle East", I'd wager that it's a *very* small number, simply because there
aren't a lot of targets in the region that are worth the fallout (real and political) that using a nuke would produce.
On the other hand, if you mean "How many times have elements of the Defense Department written up operational plans for the deployment and targeting
of nuclear weapons against targets in the Middle East?", the answer is probably "Daily". That's part of the Defense Department's (and before
that, the War Department's) job...to prepare detailed plans for military operations against any countries, on the off-chance that they might be
needed. As a non-nuclear example, check out the "Rainbow" plans that the War Department created (and kept current) up until just before World War
II. They included plans for fighting Germany and / or Japan (good choices, in retrospect), but they also included plans for engaging the U.K., France,
and several of the South American nations...not because we really expected to, but as a "just in case" exercise.
It's a safe bet that we still have plans for nuclear laydowns against China, and the former USSR. It's also a safe bet that they have similar plans
drawn up against each other, and against us.
