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US-NATO PRE-EMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKE POLICY US-NATO PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE NUCLEAR POLICY The Pentagon and NATO have been plotting for years to have nuclear weaponry accepted as a first-strike option and as a means to protect "the Western way of life" from religious fundamentalists and terrorists. Triggering a Nuclear Holocaust in the Middle East to Defend "the Western Way of Life" "What the Western allies face is a long, sustained and proactive defence of their societies and way of life. To that end, they must keep risks at a distance, while at the same time protecting their homelands. "International terrorism today aims to disrupt and destroy our societies, our economies and our way of life..." (pp. 42-43) "These different sources of [Islamist] propaganda and/or violence vary in their intellectual underpinnings, sectarian and political aims... But what they have in common is an assault on the values of the West—on its democratic processes and its freedom of religion... Notwithstanding the common perception in the West, the origin of Islamist terrorism is not victimhood, nor an inferiority complex, but a well- financed superiority complex grounded in a violent political ideology... "If the irrational and fanatical [Islamist organisations] get out of hand, there is a risk that...the rise of fundamentalisms and despotisms will usher in a new, illiberal age, in which the liberties that Western societies enjoy...are seriously jeopardised..." (p. 41) "The threats that the West and its partners face today are a combination of violent terrorism against civilians and institutions, wars fought by proxy by states that sponsor terrorism, the behaviour of rogue states, the actions of organised international crime, and the coordination of hostile action through abuse of non- military means..." (p. 44) (from "Towards a Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World: Renewing Transatlantic Partnership", Group Report by former defence chiefs of staff General (ret.) John Shalikashvili (USA), General (ret.) Dr Klaus Naumann (Germany), Field Marshal The Lord Inge (UK), Admiral (ret.) Jacques Lanxade (France) and General (ret.) Henk van den Breemen (The Netherlands), published by the Netherlands-based Noaber Foundation, December 2007, http:/Avww.csis.org/media/csis/events/ 080110_grand_strategy.pdf; emphasis added) he controversial NATO-sponsored report entitled "Towards a Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World: Renewing Transatlantic Partnership" calls for a first-strike use of nuclear weapons. The pre-emptive use of nukes would be utilised to undermine an "increasingly brutal world" and also as a means to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction: "They [the authors of the report] consider that nuclear war might soon become possible in an increasingly brutal world. They propose the first use of nuclear weapons must remain 'in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction’." (Paul Dibb, "Nuclear Warfare Just Stepped Closer", Sydney Morning Herald, 11 February 2008, www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/02/10/1202578598972.html) by Michel Chossudovsky © Centre for Research on Globalization, Montreal, Canada 11 February 2008 Web page: http:/Awww.globalresearch.ca/ index.php?context=va&aid=8048 by Michel Chossudovsky © Centre for Research on Globalization, Montreal, Canada 11 February 2008 The group insists that the option of a nuclear first strike is indispensable, "since there is simply no realistic prospect of a nuclear-free world" (Report, p. 97): "Nuclear weapons are the ultimate instrument of an asymmetric response—and at the same time the ultimate tool of escalation. Yet they are also more than an instrument, since they transform the nature of any conflict and widen its scope from the regional to the global... Web page: http:/Awww.globalresearch.ca/ index.php?context=va&aid=8048 APRIL — MAY 2008 NEXUS +13 www.nexusmagazine.com