Greenpeace reports that not only has the US Government never abandoned the idea that there's such a thing as a winnable nuclear war, but that the Bush administration has actually dramatically lowered the nuclear threshold, and is arguing internally over whether you actually need to do things like, say, warning allied troops in the area that a nuclear attack is imminent. They obtained a copy of a document from a Pentagon website (now removed) which discusses the use of nuclear weapons as just another tool in the toolbox, and which condones the use of nuclear weapons in pre-emptive first strikes against nations, even non-nuclear nations, which the US government thinks might use chemical or biological weapons against US forces or allies.
Think about that for a moment. Had this policy been in place only a couple of years ago, Baghdad, Tikrit, Mosul, Basra, Fallujah might very well be glowing glass craters today. I suspect you can imagine how universally reviled the US would be in world opinion had that happened.
I know, this is basically going to be old news to some of you. I was already aware of it. But I didn't know this document existed out on the Internet.
This document was removed from a Pentagon website in September of 2005 "because even in an unclassified world this is not the kind of thing you want flying around the Internet," according to a Pentagon Spokesman.
We believe this is exactly the kind of document which ought to "fly around the internet," and so present you the draft report complete with tracked changes.