Sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).Block Star Wars (Missile Defense) Programs and nuclear weapons in space. Block funding and deployment for new and “more usable” nukes such as (relatively) low yield nuclear warheads for the Ground and Submarine Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM & SLCM) and the Long Range Stand-Off Missile (LRSO).Eliminate the ground-based missile leg of the “nuclear triad” (and in the interim postpone the planned $100 billion plus Ground Based Strategic Deterrent).Cut expenditures on nuclear weapons and the escalatory $1.7 trillion for the nuclear weapons upgrade.Adopt a “No First Use” policy of nuclear weapons.End “hair trigger” or “launch on warning” alert status.Stockpiles can be reduced by mutual agreement or reciprocal unilateral actions. Engage in disarmament diplomacy with Russia, and later China, to avoid a prolonged new nuclear arms race.Reduce the fearmongering about China and Russia that is driving, or rationalizing, outdated policies and runaway spending on nuclear weapons.To stop the nuclear spiral and deescalate these arms races, we must act now and pressure Congress and President Biden to take the following steps: The removal of Tomero by the Pentagon is indicative of the direction the Biden Administration may follow unless quick and clear action is taken. President Biden nominated Leonor Tomero to oversee his nuclear posture review, but she was removed last year from her position by the Pentagon as part of a staff “reorganization.” The military believes maintaining a vague and uncertain doctrine of when to use nuclear weapons is the proper strategy and, more concerning, presses the argument that the nation’s nuclear arsenal must be modernized at a $1.7 trillion cost over the next three decades. Strangeloves in the nuclear establishment is strong in the NPR process. Unsurprisingly, status quo resistance to change of the Dr. Taiwan, Ukraine, North Korea, Kashmir or Iran could be fatal, apocalyptic tipping points.Īs a long-time arms control advocate in the Senate, some hoped Biden would initiate progress on arms reduction, perhaps even move toward President Obama’s goal of a nuclear free world. Such a posture could bring an element of stability to a woefully unstable world where the chances of accidental nuclear war, or conventional war spinning into nuclear war, are perhaps at a most dangerous point. Accordingly, conventional, biological, chemical, or cyber attacks would not initiate a nuclear response. would only use nuclear weapons to deter a nuclear attack or in response to a nuclear attack. Logically then, many expected a “No First Use” or “Sole Purpose” declaration might be included in his Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), a pledge that the U.S. A recent statement by the Permanent Five members of the UN Security Council, all nuclear powers, repeated the Reagan-Gorbachev era statement that “a nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought.” He has consistently raised the point that nuclear arms should not be used offensively as a first resort. President Biden, with his decades in government, knows nuclear weapons issues very well, perhaps better than any of his predecessors. Previous reviews invariably were reaffirmations of the existing nuclear doctrine of the United States. According to the Clock, we have 100 seconds to midnight.Įarly in the Biden administration, the president committed to a review of the nation’s “Nuclear Posture,” the explicit strategy of how, when, and why the United States would use its nuclear weapons. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock remains a potent symbol with its message that if decisive action is not taken, destructive action moves the hands of the clock toward Armageddon. Infernos, radiation, starvation, perhaps a last-ditch effort for survival resulting in barbaric, tribal warfare before human civilization expires. Tens of millions die in the first 60 minutes of a nuclear exchange, followed by nuclear winter causing worldwide crop failure and famine. However, the far more likely way civilization ends in the near future is one that receives shockingly little attention in the media or in our daily conversation. Climate catastrophe, pandemics, cyberwar and endless wars seem “normal” by now. We have grown numb to the world resting on a razor’s edge of destruction. Photograph Source: James Stencilowsky – CC BY 2.0
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