PRESS RELEASE
U.C. San Diego Physics Professor Warns, `Voting Republican in November Is Voting To Wage Nuclear War'
Oct. 16, 2006 (EIRNS)—Jorge Hirsch, who has led a campaign by physicists against the 2002 Nuclear Posture Review and related pro-nuclear-use policies, issued a documented warning that if the Republicans are not defeated in November, then the United States will likely go to war with Iran "before President Bush leaves office."
Lyndon LaRouche commented that the Hirsch assessment, and his concerns and proposals, are, for the purposes of policy making, without getting into detail, fundamentally correct (read full Hirsch article).
On North Korea, Hirsch writes that "the nuclearization of North Korea only helps the plan to nuke Iran, which is why the administration did everything it could to encourage it."
He argues that the Rumsfeld "transformation" policies of downsizing the military ultimately lead to nuclear weapons use. Despite many calls for Rumsfeld's resignation from across the political spectrum, says Hirsch, Rumsfeld will not go until he has succeeded in overriding the "nuclear taboo," by "detonating a small tactical nuclear weapon against a US enemy," probably Natanz or another Iranian facility.
Hirsch is also clear that the "cause" of the war has nothing to do with Iran's nuclear capability, because even hitting Iran with nuclear weapons won't destroy that. He says: "The nuclear weapons that the administration is planning to use against Iran are low-yield earth-penetrating weapons expected to cause 'reduced collateral damage'. Their real purpose is not to destroy facilities that are too deep underground to be destroyed by conventional weapons: it is primarily to erase the nuclear taboo, and secondarily to shock-and-awe Iran into surrender."
Hirsch argues that, although the decision to employ nuclear weapons in time of war lies with the President (according to NSC 30 from 1948), the Congress nonetheless has the Constitutional authority to "make rules for the government and regulation" of the Armed Forces (Article 1, Sect. 8, Clause 14). The Congress could thus "block the authority of the President to order the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon countries by passing legislation." Since "Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, with the advice of Kissinger, are hell-bent on pursuing" a nuclear attack on Iran, and since "a military takeover of government is not likely, and military refusal to carry out immoral orders is uncertain at best," therefore, Hirsch concludes, Congress must use its power to stop it. While there are many Republicans who agree, "a Republican Congress is likely to rubber-stamp any White House plan on Iran," and thus "voting Republican is voting to wage nuclear war."
