Just a bit of "prudent" planning, as the secretary of state, Colin Powell, would have it? Or a striking new departure in America's nuclear philosophy, as some supporters as well as critics insist? The confidential details of the administration's nuclear-posture review, sent by the Department of Defence to Congress in January, but extensively leaked to the press in the past week, have caused a stir. The New York Times, for one, compared the new plan to the action of a rogue state. George Bush had been doing rather well at arms control. His promise last year to cut America's nuclear-weapons stockpile to the lowest number "consistent with our national security needs" had helped to mollify critics of his missile-defence plans. Russia's Vladimir Putin was sufficiently persuaded to describe Mr Bush's decision to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty as merely a "mistake", and to take up the offer of deep cuts in nuclear weapons. They should come down from around 6,000 deployed warheads on each side today to some 2,000 in future.
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