本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛18/3/02
Introduction:
Last week the headlines screamed around the world 'Nuclear Option: on the Table' President Bush endorsed a U-S military review outlining situations in which the Americans might use nuclear weapons.
Scott Taylor is the editor of 'Esprit de Corps', a Canadian military magazine. Today on Commentary he says Canada should emphatically reject the nuclear option.
Scott Taylor:
With last week's announcement by President Bush that America is prepared to use nuclear weapons if necessary against the axis of evil, the war against terror has taken an ominous turn.
By threatening to visit retaliatory annihilation upon millions of innocent civilians, the United States has itself become what it purports to be fighting: a global terrorist.
There is little doubt that the goal of the September 11th highjackers was to punish America in retaliation for the United States' pro-Israeli, Mid-East policies. That they chose to target thousands of defenceless civilians was rightly denounced as cowardly and despicable.
Now, President Bush is proudly announcing that all citizens residing in rogue states will be held similarly accountable with their lives. Bush has claimed that any terrorist action against the U.S. linked to these particular regimes would be countered with all military means including the use of nuclear weapons.
Nowhere did Bush quantify the scale of terrorist attack that would be required to unleash such a devastating destruction of innocent lives.
During the Second World War, the occupying Nazis used a retaliatory scale of 100 to 1 to deter the activities of Yugoslavian guerrillas. For the death of every German soldier, one hundred innocent villagers were rounded up and slaughtered. Such barbaric executions were condemned as inhuman war crimes, and helped earn the Nazis an everlasting place in the history of evil.
Now President Bush is threatening to increase the Nazi's retribution scale by a thousand fold, and he's asking Canada and the rest of the Western world to morally support him. The European community has become increasingly alarmed over Bush's haste to widen the war even as military operations in Afghanistan continue to escalate.
This latest threat of nuclear retaliation has further eroded European public support for the U.S. led coalition. Although Prime Minister Jean Chretien initially claimed that Canada would not support a conventional military attack against Iraq Bush's number one target on the axis of evil list American Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice soon pressured that "no" into a "maybe."
Placing our troops in harm's way to bring al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan to justice can be morally justified. However, the launching of a nuclear holocaust cannot.
Canada and the other coalition partners should send a strong message to the U.S. immediately: Take the nuke threat off the table, or you'll be fighting the war on terror alone.
For Commentary, I'm Scott Taylor in Ottawa.
Listen to today's Commentary更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
Introduction:
Last week the headlines screamed around the world 'Nuclear Option: on the Table' President Bush endorsed a U-S military review outlining situations in which the Americans might use nuclear weapons.
Scott Taylor is the editor of 'Esprit de Corps', a Canadian military magazine. Today on Commentary he says Canada should emphatically reject the nuclear option.
Scott Taylor:
With last week's announcement by President Bush that America is prepared to use nuclear weapons if necessary against the axis of evil, the war against terror has taken an ominous turn.
By threatening to visit retaliatory annihilation upon millions of innocent civilians, the United States has itself become what it purports to be fighting: a global terrorist.
There is little doubt that the goal of the September 11th highjackers was to punish America in retaliation for the United States' pro-Israeli, Mid-East policies. That they chose to target thousands of defenceless civilians was rightly denounced as cowardly and despicable.
Now, President Bush is proudly announcing that all citizens residing in rogue states will be held similarly accountable with their lives. Bush has claimed that any terrorist action against the U.S. linked to these particular regimes would be countered with all military means including the use of nuclear weapons.
Nowhere did Bush quantify the scale of terrorist attack that would be required to unleash such a devastating destruction of innocent lives.
During the Second World War, the occupying Nazis used a retaliatory scale of 100 to 1 to deter the activities of Yugoslavian guerrillas. For the death of every German soldier, one hundred innocent villagers were rounded up and slaughtered. Such barbaric executions were condemned as inhuman war crimes, and helped earn the Nazis an everlasting place in the history of evil.
Now President Bush is threatening to increase the Nazi's retribution scale by a thousand fold, and he's asking Canada and the rest of the Western world to morally support him. The European community has become increasingly alarmed over Bush's haste to widen the war even as military operations in Afghanistan continue to escalate.
This latest threat of nuclear retaliation has further eroded European public support for the U.S. led coalition. Although Prime Minister Jean Chretien initially claimed that Canada would not support a conventional military attack against Iraq Bush's number one target on the axis of evil list American Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice soon pressured that "no" into a "maybe."
Placing our troops in harm's way to bring al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan to justice can be morally justified. However, the launching of a nuclear holocaust cannot.
Canada and the other coalition partners should send a strong message to the U.S. immediately: Take the nuke threat off the table, or you'll be fighting the war on terror alone.
For Commentary, I'm Scott Taylor in Ottawa.
Listen to today's Commentary更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net