It's not often you see "chemical weapons" and "good news" in the same sentence, but the Pentagon's budgetary about-face on chemical weapons disposal is good news for Kentucky.
Just a year ago funding had been frozen and the Pentagon wanted to let Kentucky's aging nerve gas stockpile languish for another five years. The discredited idea of transporting chemical weapons across the country was even revived.
All those bad ideas seem to have been abandoned. President Bush's proposed budget includes $350 million for weapons disposal in Kentucky and Colorado.
At both sites, a chemical process will be used to neutralize the weapons. Some players in the Defense Department have never gotten over not being able to force weapons incinerators on Kentucky and Colorado, even though neutralization will be safer and probably more cost-effective.
Kentucky's share of the proposed appropriation is $175 million. That would be the first real money going into a $2 billion project that will employ hundreds of people at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Madison County, says Craig Williams of the Chemical Weapons Working Group. The national advocacy organization based in Berea revealed the Pentagon's plans last year to delay weapons disposal in Kentucky and Colorado.
"We've witnessed a unique victory," Williams said. "To turn a Pentagon decision of this magnitude around in a little over a year's time, well, it doesn't usually happen."
Thanks to Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Wayne Allard of Colorado for hammering the administration on this. Without them, it's doubtful the Pentagon would have budged and we'd be waiting even longer to safely rid ourselves of WMD at home.
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