Clinton Signs Order to Nuke Iraq

• The President and Republican leaders -- each of whom had excuses not to serve in Vietnam -- now want to destroy Iraq.

President Bill Clinton has signed an Executive Order allowing the United States military for the first time to target Iraq with tactical atomic warheads.

This is the scenario: If Iraq's President Saddam Hussein should launch a chemical or biological attack against other neighboring countries, after the United States attacked Iraq, then the Clinton administration has a contingency plan to strike Iraq with tactical nuclear weapons.

The secret directive was signed by Clinton in November, according to Newsday, a New York daily published on Long Island.

At the time, The SPOTLIGHT also has learned the U.S. military, now with three carrier battle groups in place and ready to launch aircraft against Iraq, is expected to attack any time, as this issue of The SPOTLIGHT goes to press. Washington wants to force Hussein to allow United Nations' inspectors free rein in his country. Hussein claims this violates Iraqi sovereignty.

According to the Air Force source, initial strikes by carrier-bases Navy fighter-bombers, Air Force bombers and cruise missiles will "take out" 67 targets suspected of being Iraqi chemical and biological manufacturing or storage facilities.

Many military experts claim the only way to make certain Iraqi chemical and biological arsenals are totally destroyed is through the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

If tactical nukes are used in Iraq, it will mark the first time atomic weapons have been used in warfare since the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, bringing World War II to a rapid conclusion.
"There is little doubt," one retired Air Force officer told The SPOTLIGHT, "that if nuclear weapons are used on Iraqi targets, and noting how Hussein has in the past shielded such targets with civilians, loss of civilian life will be terrible."

He also said Hussein is expected to retaliate in any way available to him. "You can just count on this," he said.

LITTLE OPPOSITION

Ironically, efforts in Congress to give the president what is described as unlimited authority for the "unrestricted use" of force against Iraq has brought opposition from members only of Clinton's own party.

Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.) Is concerned that "I the objective is to use the military to destroy Iraq's chemical and biological weapons capability, then a bombing campaign may not achieve this objective. Does the president intend to commit ground troops to accomplish that task?"

Cleland, in addressing the Senate on the subject, was apparently not aware of Clinton's nuclear options already in place.

The Georgia Democrat, a severely wounded veteran of the Vietnam War, expressed his concern congressional support of the president's war plans against Iraq could be later used as the "legal basis" for military action in the Persian Gulf.

He pointed out that the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, enacted by Congress during the administration of President Lyndon Johnson, legalized the Vietnam War.

Cleland was supported in his cautious approach to giving Clinton carte Blanche military authority n the Gulf by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.).

Meanwhile, Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) were chomping at the bit to give Clinton the authority for the use of "unrestricted" force against the Iraqi nation.