[continued from previous message] 
  
 loaded with half a dozen nuclear-armed cruise missiles on a flight last 
 month between North Dakota and Louisiana has triggered a flurry of news 
 reports and caused many to ask how such an incident is even possible in 
 a post-9/11 era. How can we hope to keep nuclear weapons out of the 
 wrong hands if we're not always 100 percent certain about where our 
 weapons are? 
  
 The Air Force has started an investigation but already assured people 
 that there was never a threat to the public, that safety is paramount 
 in every munitions activity, and that all evidence so far points to an 
 isolated mistake. 
  
 But safety is only part of the issue, and Congressional oversight 
 should not end there. An equally important question is how the mix-up 
 of nuclear and unarmed cruise missiles on a bomber relates to strike 
 planning. This flight was a domestic transport but imagine if the B-52 
 had been part of a strike in the opening phases of a war. 
  
 The Navy has proposed replacing some nuclear warheads on sea-launched 
 ballistic missiles with conventional warheads, and co-deploying nuclear 
 and conventional missiles on the same submarines. Congress already has 
 raised concerns about that scenario, but try adding to that nuclear 
 custodians who do not always know with 100 percent certainty which 
 weapons are nuclear and which ones are not. That raises some profound 
 questions about crisis stability and the risk of accidental nuclear war. 
  
 "Sorry, Mr. President, we thought they were conventional." 
  
  
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