At a White House briefing that year， a spokesman said the United States would "respond with overwhelming force" to the use of weapons of mass destruction againstthe United States， its forces， or allies， and said" all options" would be available tcthe president.<br> The draft， dated March 15， would provide authoritative guidance for com-manders to request presidential approval for using nuclear weapons， and represent.，the Pentagons first attempt to revise procedures to reflect the Bush preemption doc-trine. A previous version， completed in 1995 during the Clinton administration， con-tains no mention of using nuclear weapons preemptively or specifically against threatsfrom weapons of mass destruction.<br> Titled "Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations" and written under the direction otAir Force General Richard B. Myers， chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff， the draf！document is unclassified and available on a Pentagon website. It is expected to besigned within a few weeks by Air Force Lieutenant General Norton A. Schwartz， di-rector of the Joint Staff， according to Navy Commander Dawn Cutler， a public affairsofficer in Myerss office. Meanwhile， the draft is going through final coordination withthe military services， the combatant commanders， Pentagon legal authorities， andRumsfelds office， Cutler said in a written statement.<br> A" summary of changes" included in the draft identifies differences from the1995 doctrine and says the new document "revises the discussion of nuclear weaponsuse across the range of military operations. "<br> The first example for potential nuclear weapon use listed in the draft is againstan enemy that is using" or intending to use WMD" against US or allied， multinationalmilitary forces or civilian populations.<br> Another scenario for a possible nuclear preemptive strike is in case of an"immi-nent attack from adversary biological weapons that only effects from nuclear weaponscan safely destroy. "<br> That and other provisions in the document appear to refer to nuclear initiativesproposed by the administration that Congress has thus far declined to fully support.<br> The Joint Staff draft doctrine explains that despite the end of the Cold War， theproliferation of weapons of mass destruction " raises the danger of nuclearweapons use.
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