Linkspam for 24-9-2009

Disgraceful.

…without public announcements, the administration of President George W. Bush removed all nuclear weapons from Greece in 2001 and from Britain in 2008, plus withdrawing most of the deployed weapons from Germany in 2007 and a large number from Italy… Today, five countries [Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Turkey] host "tactical" nuclear weapons… The basing countries thereby have many of the responsibilities of nuclear weapon states but little of the ultimate authority… Does NATO unity really depend on outmoded weapons and increasingly obsolescent delivery aircraft? … Washington and five European capitals have it easily within their power to create a de facto European nuclear weapon free zone between the French and Russian borders. No real security would be lost; much money would be saved.