ABQjournal: Election 2004: A Look at Nuclear Issues By John Fleck, Journal Staff Writer

John Kerry and George W. Bush offer voters a clear choice on what has become the central national debate about the future direction of the U.S. nuclear arsenalâ — the question of whether to pursue a new nuclear bomb designed to destroy underground enemy bunkers. …

Bush’s administration is pushing for the design of a new nuclear bunker-busting bomb. …

“There is a clear military utility to this weapon,” Bush’s top nuclear weapons program manager, Linton Brooks, told a Senate committee in March.

Kerry opposes it.

“This is a weapon we don’t need,” Kerry countered in a June 1 campaign speech in Florida, “and it undermines our credibility in persuading other nations. What kind of a message does it send when we’re asking other countries not to develop nuclear weapons, but developing new ones ourselves?”