By Christopher Busby, Bideford, introduced by John Helmer, Moscow
@bears_with
The neutron bomb was
invented in 1958 by Samuel Cohen (
lead image, left) of the Livermore Laboratory of California and then RAND.
In 1984 he
proposed that Israel construct a neutron radiation wall around the country. “What I am suggesting is the construction of a border barrier whose most effective component is an extremely intense field of nuclear radiation (produced by the operation of underground nuclear reactors), sharply confined to the barrier zone, which practically guarantees the death of anyone attempting to breach the barrier. Establishing such a ‘nuclear wall’ at the borders of a threatened country can make virtually impossible any successful penetration by ground forces – as well as a preemptive ground attack by the threatened country.”
Cohen, who described himself as an “unbelieving Jew”, believed that by creating this radiation barrier around Israel, no Arab state army would attack. He also believed that by deterring that form of escalation, Cohen’s neutron wall would be protecting the US because, in the end, Cohen believed the US would abandon Israel to its fate if the US were threatened directly. “If the Soviets intrude again in an Arab-Israeli war, “ Cohen wrote, “this time with vastly improved nuclear capabilities to back up their actions, the survival of the United States would be at stake. Clearly this is a situation where it would be irrational—indeed, intolerable—for us to remain committed to Israel. Clearly, the most responsible thing the United States can do, to ensure its own security, is to make drastic changes in its military assistance to Israel (and to other Mideast countries as well) to prevent such a situation from ever arising. Otherwise, based on the wretched history of this turbulent arena, there is every reason to expect that one of these days a nuclear showdown will arise.”
What Cohen
was proposing was a neutron bomb to be deployed by Israel except that, because there was no detonation, no explosion, he claimed there was no neutron bomb.
“During peacetime, the reactors (employed underground, for protection and safety) are operated on a continual basis, as are our power reactors. The neutrons produced by the fission reactions escape into a solution containing an element that, upon absorbing the neutrons, becomes highly radioactive and emits gamma rays (very high energy X-rays) at extremely high intensity. The radioactive solution is then passed into a series of pipes running along the barrier length in conjunction with conventional obstacle components—mines, Dragon’s Teeth, tank traps, barbed wire, etc. To the rear of the pipes and obstacle belts is a system of conventional defensive fortifications. (The obstacles, the firepower from the fortifications, and tactical air power all serve to impede the rate of advance of the attacker, increasing the attacker’s exposure to the gamma radiation. Vice versa, by quickly incapacitating the attacker, the radiation serves to make it difficult, or even impossible, for the attacker to remove the obstacles and assault the fortifications.) The width of the entire defensive system need be no more than a few miles.”
Since it was Cohen’s idea that the Palestinians and the Arabs were neither defending their lands or themselves, but were the “aggressors” against Israel, Cohen argued it was perfectly moral for the Israelis to use their neutron weapon “defensively”.
“Regarding the morality (or immorality) of such defensive use of nuclear radiation, one should keep in mind that the gamma rays themselves can, of course, have no intentions; nor is there necessarily any intent by those who produce them to kill anyone. The intent to kill has to lie with the aggressor—to kill himself. This contrasts sharply with the employment of conventional weapons, where there is every intent to kill the enemy. The basic purpose of the radiation is to deter the would-be aggressor from attacking; that is, to prevent war.”
Cohen thought a quick radiation death was more moral than a lingering one from conventional munition wounds.
He also dismissed the idea that his radiation wall was a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) or a war crime. “The radiation barrier involves a pipe filled with radioactivity of controlled duration, installed on friendly soil for the purpose of self-defence, and whose radiation effects are constrained to a very narrow strip of unpopulated territory. Clearly, this cannot be called a weapon of mass destruction, and a radiation barrier could be constructed without any violation of existing or contemplated nuclear arms control treaties.”
While in Cohen’s case for the Israeli neutron weapon he believed it would deter tactical operations of the Hamas or Hezbollah-type incursions, he argued the bigger threat to Israel’s survival was that the US would not risk itself in a nuclear escalation with the Soviet Union, if escalation between Israel and the Arabs headed in that direction. Cohen didn’t mention Iran. He did say that the Kremlin was Israel’s strategic enemy.
“For the United States to risk nuclear war by risking a confrontation with the Soviets in the Middle East would defy reason. This unhappy fact of life, if there is to be any sanity on the part of my country [US], excludes the possibility of US military intervention in the event of another Mideast war. Should Israel once again put itself in a position where its military forces threaten the integrity of an Arab country and should the USSR threaten to come to the aid of that country, Israel would have to be on its own. Considering the overwhelming military force the Soviets could bring to bear, this would place Israel in an untenable position whether or not it used nuclear weapons. The real threat to Israel in the future, if it continues with its past military doctrine, will thus be the Soviet Union, not the Arab nations, however powerfully they may arm themselves with conventional weapons. And this compels Israel to change its doctrine in favour of a guaranteed defence of its borders to ensure that they will never be placed in a position that brings the Soviets into an Arab-Israeli war.”
Cohen is dead. His tactical and strategic calculations are alive; they are secretly being recalculated at this moment. When US President Joseph Biden warned overnight that Israel’s military methods were
threatening “[world] support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place”, and that “[Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] has to change, and with this government”, Biden was signalling the US will not escalate if the Israelis try to provoke it.
Cohen’s ghost – Russian intervention – is behind the Biden warning to Israel. “We continue to provide military assistance to Israel until they get rid of Hamas. But — but — we have to be careful,” Biden
said twice. “Have to be careful.” (Biden was also revealing his re-election calculation of donor money now, votes later,
depends on it. )
What Biden and President Vladimir Putin secretly suspect is that Israel has already
escalated to tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield, to genetic destruction warfare against the Palestinians, — and to something like the neutron bomb.
This is not the Cohen version of forty years ago.
Nor is it the depleted uranium (DU) artillery shells and air-dropped DU bombs or rockets, which have been used for years by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in Gaza and Lebanon.
Here is the case, the physical evidence, that the Israelis are using a new type of uranium radiation weapon.
Christopher Busby is one of the leading nuclear physicists in Europe to have researched the long-range dispersal of depleted uranium weapons causing biochemical damage. His Wikipedia profile summarizes his background, his published work, and the controversies which have arisen.
Busby and his colleagues conduct their research, publish their findings, and speak publicly through Green Audit, their Wales-based consultancy; for more detail,
click. Follow Busby on
Twitter.
Here is Busby’s latest research paper, entitled
“Evidence for the use by Israel of a neutron uranium warhead in Palestine and Lebanon.” For the full text and a discussion of the preceding research paper by Busby on depleted uranium weapons,
click to read.
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