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Global Times: Five Types of US Global Nuclear Targets
An article carried in the Global Times on April 25 analyzed the five types of US nuclear targets.
The article said in the report of US Nuclear Posture Review disclosed in March, the United States stated that it was possible to use preemptive nuclear attacks to eliminate "threats" facing the United States, and it listed seven countries, including Russia and China, as potential nuclear targets. This implies that the possibility for the United States to use nuclear weapons in future wars has greatly increased.
Then, how does America select the targets for its first nuclear attacks?
The article said US nuclear targets are divided into five categories:
The first type are the enemy's bases with large-scale lethal weapons including nuclear weapons as well as its transport, storage and other logistic facilities;
The second type are the enemy's military leading organs, command posts at various levels and communication pivots;
The third type are the enemy's effective strengths, such as the assembly areas of combat troops and reserve forces and air and naval bases;
The fourth type are the enemy's important industrial centers, hubs of communications, ports, etc.;
The fifth type are the enemy's important cities, political centers, etc. In addition, in the selection of the time for assault, the United States demands that strategic nuclear weapon troops must take the enemy by surprise to achieve preemptive results.
First nuclear attack should be launched at the time and place not to be easily perceived by the enemy. In the selection of targets for attack, US troops claim that nuclear attack should be mounted at key points and carried out by stages, and that it is, first of all, necessary to guarantee that destructive attacks should be made upon the enemy's targets of the first and second categories, especially targets of the first category, so as to divest the enemy of its ability to counterattack;
Secondly, it is necessary to launch nuclear attack on targets of the third and fourth categories, and thus paralyze the enemy's ability to maintain and continue the war; only under the circumstance where there is no other choice, is it suitable to deal a ruinous blow at the enemy's targets of the fifth category.
It is widely known that the United States is one of the countries in today's world, which boast most nuclear weapons, America has not only deployed a powerful "nuclear position" in its own land, but also has, through various channels, extended its nuclear weapon talons to various corners of the globe.
The article stated that since the United States dropped its atom bombs in Japan during World War II, nuclear weapons have ceased be used in actual wars. But during the nearly 30-year period after the conclusion of World War II, the United States had time and again planned to use said weapons, the article enumerates crises and accidents in which American nuclear weapons almost fell upon the people.
In its analysis, the article said the United States has always insisted that it must have around 2,300 nuclear warheads ready to be launched at all times, this is because since the signing of START II in 1993, the number of US nuclear attack targets has increased instead of decrease.
In the past five years alone, the number of targets of attack on the list has gone up by 20 percent, increasing from 2,500 warheads in 1995 to 3,000 in 2000. Among the 3,000 targets of attack, 1,100 are nuclear targets, 500 conventional targets, 160 targets of leaders and command centers, and 500 targets of industry capable of sustaining the war.
(People's Daily April 28, 2002)
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