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U.S. Considered Using Nuclear Weapons Against Afghanistan After 9/11
Former president George Bush with former vice president Dick Cheney and Senior Staff in the President’s Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) (Vice Presidential Records of the Photography Office / CC BY-SA 3.0)
The United States considered using nuclear weapons against Afghanistan in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, according to German publication Der Spiegel.
Michael Steiner, a former political advisor to then-German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, told the paper that the nuclear option was one of the possibilities examined after the attacks.
From Haaretz:
“The papers were written,” Steiner said when asked whether the U.S. was considered using nuclear weapons in response to the attacks orchestrated by Al-Qaida’s Osama bin Laden, in which almost 3,000 people were killed. “They had really played through all possibilities.”
Steiner added that Schroder had feared that the U.S., which was in a state of shock following the attacks, would overreact.
Moreover, Steiner said in the interview that Schroder rejected his idea to publish a statement declaring “unconditional support” for the United States.
Tensions between Schroder and U.S. President George Bush intensified in 2003 when the chancellor refused to join U.S.-led coalition in the military campaign against Iraq.
Read more here.
—Posted by Roisin Davis
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Source: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/us_considered_using_nuclear_weapons_against_afghanistan_after_9_11_201508/
