Why does removing Iceweasel nuke GNOME?

I hav an older Debian 7 VM for testing. I'm trying to reduce VM footprint size because I am about out of space. I wanted to remove Iceweasel since I don't really use it, and I can usually get by with wget. When I ran Apt it told me it was removing GNOME, too: $ sudo apt-get remove iceweasel* ... The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: hyphen-en-us libfs6 task-desktop x11-apps x11-session-utils x11-xfs-utils xinit xorg Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them. The following extra packages will be installed: icedove iceowl-extension Suggested packages: apparmor calendar-google-provider The following packages will be REMOVED: gnome gnome-core iceweasel task-gnome-desktop The following NEW packages will be installed: icedove iceowl-extension 0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 4 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 44.7 MB of archives. After this operation, 100 MB of additional disk space will be used. ... Why does removing Iceweasel nuke GNOME? ----- After removing Iceweasel and then making an autoclean and autoremove pass, this was presented. I'm fairly certain this VM has been rendered useless. The following packages will be REMOVED: aisleriot ant ant-optional argyll at-spi2-core baobab browser-plugin-gnash ca-certificates-java caribou caribou-antler cheese dconf-tools default-jre default-jre-headless empathy empathy-common espeak-data file-roller finger fonts-cantarell fonts-opensymbol fonts-sil-gentium fonts-sil-gentium-basic gcalctool gdebi gdm3 gedit gedit-common gedit-plugins gir1.2-atspi-2.0 gir1.2-gdata-0.0 gir1.2-gnomekeyring-1.0 gir1.2-goa-1.0 gir1.2-gtop-2.0 gir1.2-gucharmap-2.90 gir1.2-javascriptcoregtk-3.0 gir1.2-rb-3.0 gir1.2-tracker-0.14 gir1.2-webkit-3.0 gir1.2-wnck-3.0 glchess glines gnash gnash-common gnect gnibbles gnobots2 gnome-backgrounds gnome-color-manager gnome-dictionary gnome-disk-utility gnome-documents gnome-font-viewer gnome-games gnome-games-data gnome-games-extra-data gnome-icon-theme-extras gnome-mag gnome-nettool gnome-orca gnome-packagekit gnome-packagekit-data gnome-screenshot gnome-shell-extensions gnome-sudoku gnome-system-log gnome-tweak-tool gnome-video-effects gnomine gnotravex gnotski gnuchess gnuchess-book grilo-plugins-0.1 gtali gucharmap guile-2.0-libs hamster-applet hyphen-en-us iagno icedtea-6-jre-cacao icedtea-6-jre-jamvm icedtea-netx icedtea-netx-common inkscape iputils-tracepath java-common libapache-pom-java libatk-adaptor libatk-adaptor-data libatk-bridge2.0-0 libatk-wrapper-java libatk-wrapper-java-jni libatspi1.0-0 libatspi2.0-0 libavahi-gobject0 libavahi-ui-gtk3-0 libblas3gf libboost-program-options1.49.0 libboost-thread1.49.0 libcaribou-gtk-module libcaribou-gtk3-module libcmis-0.2-0 libcolamd2.7.1 libcolorblind0 libcommons-beanutils-java libcommons-collections3-java libcommons-compress-java libcommons-digester-java libcommons-logging-java libcommons-parent-java libdb-java libdb-je-java libdb5.1-java libdb5.1-java-jni libdee-1.0-4 libdiscid0 libdmapsharing-3.0-2 libdotconf1.0 libespeak1 libexttextcat-data libexttextcat0 libfs6 libgail-common libgdict-1.0-6 libgdict-common libgdu-gtk0 libgeocode-glib0 libgexiv2-1 libgnome-mag2 libgpod-common libgpod4 libgraphite2-2.0.0 libgrilo-0.1-0 libgtk-vnc-2.0-0 libgupnp-av-1.0-2 libgupnp-dlna-1.0-2 libgvnc-1.0-0 libhsqldb-java libhyphen0 libicc2 libicu4j-java libimdi0 libjaxp1.3-java libjline-java libjtidy-java liblinear-tools liblinear1 liblouis-data liblouis2 liblucene2-java libmagick++5 libminiupnpc5 libmtp-common libmtp-runtime libmtp9 libmythes-1.2-0 libnatpmp1 libplot2c2 libpstoedit0c2a libraw5 libregexp-java libreoffice libreoffice-base libreoffice-base-core libreoffice-calc libreoffice-common libreoffice-core libreoffice-draw libreoffice-emailmerge libreoffice-evolution libreoffice-filter-binfilter libreoffice-filter-mobiledev libreoffice-gnome libreoffice-gtk libreoffice-help-en-us libreoffice-impress libreoffice-java-common libreoffice-math libreoffice-report-builder-bin libreoffice-style-galaxy libreoffice-style-tango libreoffice-writer librhythmbox-core6 libsctp1 libservlet2.5-java libsofia-sip-ua-glib3 libsofia-sip-ua0 libsonic0 libspeechd2 libstlport4.6ldbl libsvm-tools libtelepathy-farstream2 libunique-3.0-0 libvisio-0.0-0 libwnck-common libwnck22 libwpd-0.9-9 libwpg-0.2-2 libwps-0.2-2 libxalan2-java libxerces2-java libxml-commons-external-java libxml-commons-resolver1.1-java libxss1 libxz-java lightsoff lksctp-tools lp-solve mahjongg media-player-info minissdpd mobile-broadband-provider-info mythes-en-us network-manager-gnome nmap openjdk-6-jre openjdk-6-jre-headless openjdk-6-jre-lib openjdk-7-jre openjdk-7-jre-headless p7zip-full perlmagick pstoedit python-brlapi python-louis python-mako python-markupsafe python-pyatspi python-pyatspi2 python-speechd python-uno python-wnck python-zeitgeist quadrapassel rdesktop rhythmbox rhythmbox-data rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder rhythmbox-plugins rygel rygel-playbin rygel-preferences rygel-tracker seahorse shotwell shotwell-common simple-scan sound-juicer sound-theme-freedesktop speech-dispatcher swell-foop task-desktop telepathy-gabble telepathy-idle telepathy-logger telepathy-rakia telepathy-salut transmission-common transmission-gtk ttf-liberation ttf-sil-gentium-basic tzdata-java uno-libs3 unoconv ure vinagre vino x11-apps x11-session-utils x11-xfs-utils xbrlapi xdg-user-dirs-gtk xfonts-mathml xinit xorg xul-ext-adblock-plus zeitgeist-core 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 278 to remove and 0 not upgraded.