U.S. use of nuclear weapons

Some 200 nuclear scientists and U.S. Defense Department officials have met in Nebraska to talk about adapting the U.S. nuclear arsenal to the post-Cold War era.

The United States' idea is to sharpen the nuclear deterrent by building what it calls "more useful" weapons where people are not the primary target. Instead, they want to go after targets like stockpiled weapons of mass destruction with bunker-busting bombs.

U.S. President George W. Bush has asked Congress to continue funding "bunker buster" nuclear bombs, some of which will have 10 times the destructive force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. ...

To blur the line between ordinary and nuclear weapons does not make the post-Cold War world any safer. If nuclear weapons become commonplace, they will be attractive to decision-makers around the world.

-- Helsingin Sanomat, Helsinki, Finland