Bush stunned by U.S. nuclear arsenal size

Japan Today Japan News -

Monday, June 18, 2001

WASHINGTON President George W. Bush was stunned last month when
told of the extent of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, Newsweek magazine reported
in its June 25 edition, released on Sunday.

"I had no idea we had so many weapons," Bush was quoted as saying by an
unidentified "White House insider."

"What do we need them for?" the president was said to have asked at a
briefing, according to the Newsweek report.

But that was not a dumb question, the magazine noted in detailing the vast
U.S. nuclear arsenal, which includes 5,400 warheads on intercontinental
ballistic missiles, 1,750 nuclear bombs and cruise missiles ready to be
launched from B-2 and B-52 bombers, 1,670 "tactical" nuclear weapons and
another 10,000 warheads in bunkers around the United States.

That potential for nuclear overkill may be reined in, however, as Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld prepares at the Pentagon to implement Bush's
stated goal of streamlining and downsizing the arsenal.

Rumsfeld has brought back retired Gen. George (Lee) Butler and former
Reagan administration national security guru Richard Perle to spearhead an
effort to reduce the arsenal to safer, more manageable and more cost
efficient levels, Newsweek said.

"I see no reason why we can't go well below 1,000" warheads, Perle told the
magazine. "I want the lowest number possible under the tightest control
possible."

"The truth is we are never going to use them," Perle added. "The Russians
aren't going to use theirs either." (Reuters News)