NUCLEAR ARSENAL UPGRADE

The Bush Administration's plan to modernize America's nuclear arsenal is far from a sure thing:

The U.S. administration may have another chance to try and develop an earth-penetrating nuclear warhead.

The U.S. Senate agreed Friday [1 July] to revive the "bunker-buster" program Congress decided to kill last year.

Administration officials have maintained the country needs to try and develop a nuclear warhead that would be capable of destroying deeply buried targets including bunkers tunnelled into solid rock.

But opponents said its benefits are questionable and such a warhead would cause extensive radiation fallout above ground killing thousands of people. And they said it may make it easier for a future president to decide to use the nuclear option, instead of a conventional weapon.

France is definitely going to upgrade its arsenal:

Though France is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and is bound by Article VI's goal of nuclear disarmament, it shows no signs of giving up its remaining arsenal. Instead, it is making plans to develop, procure, and deploy new nuclear weapons, and to maintain its existing arsenal without nuclear testing, for years to come.

The left will no doubt be outraged.