Monday, December 14, 2009

The Little Helpers

Over at Arms Control Wonk, Dr. Jeffrey Lewis has a note on why the nuclear-warhead tipped Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM-N) possibly does not deserve the love given to it by Japanese officials last year.

Just how heretofore unnamed Japanese officials got the go-ahead to lobby the Congressional Commission on Strategic Posture of the United States -- a body headed by former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry -- to recommend that the Pentagon keep the nuclear TLAM-N, a weapons system the U.S. Defense Department wants to scrap, when Japan is ostensibly opposed to war in general and nuclear war in particular, without the public being alerted to these lobbying activities and without a uproar in the press or a housecleaning in the responsible ministries after the news of the lobbying activity becoming public, is beyond me.

The reason why the TLAM-N may not be a worthwhile weapons system? It's a little problem called "clobbering."

Super.

For the Commission's final report on America's nuclear posture, visit this page at the United States Institute of Peace.

1 comment:

Martin J Frid said...

Outrageous. And neither of the long pdf reports mention Japan in any detailed way. The Kyodo news report from Nov 23 is all we have as reference? Partners in crime.