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U.S govt’s nuclear spending contradicts its disarmament rhetoric

the 2011 federal budget for nuclear weapons research and development is likely to be more than $7 billion. If the Obama administration has its way, it could reach $8 billion per year by the end of this decade. This steady and growing investment contradicts the White House’s promising rhetoric of disarmament.

The New Anti-Nuclear Movement, THE HUFFINGTON POST, Frida Berrigan:, 16 April 2010, “………the upcoming Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty Review Conference will take place at the United Nations next month…..According to a Pew Research survey last fall, a little more than a half of the American public believes that “an attack on the United States with a nuclear, biological or chemical weapon is a greater danger now than it was 10 years ago.”

That is an alarming statistic. And a quick look at the nuclear landscape reinforces this anxiety. There are four more nuclear powers — Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea — than when the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty entered into force in 1970…..And here in the United States, despite the White House’s pledge to seek a world without nuclear weapons and recent agreements for arms reductions with Russia, the 2011 federal budget for nuclear weapons research and development is likely to be more than $7 billion. If the Obama administration has its way, it could reach $8 billion per year by the end of this decade. This steady and growing investment contradicts the White House’s promising rhetoric of disarmament.

In addition, the administration recently unveiled its Nuclear Posture Review, which affirms a more limited but “essential” role for nuclear weapons in U.S. national security and does not rule out “first use” of nuclear weapons. This “right” allows the United States to drop the first bomb in an atomic war, thus leaving U.S. global dominance through military power unchallenged and unchecked…..

It isn’t just the existential threat of global annihilation by accidental or deliberate nuclear strike that is of pressing concern. Whole communities throughout the world are affected daily by nuclear weapons, their land forcibly subjected to decades of nuclear testing, mining, and dumping of toxic radioactive waste…..

The United States is the biggest problem when it comes to nuclear weapons. We need a new treaty to replace the NPT. And no nukes means no nuclear power…………..

Frida Berrigan: The New Anti-Nuclear Movement

April 17, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | spinbuster, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, reactors, uranium