nuclear-news

Time to face nuclear dangers, Citizen Times, Terrence Clark, 7 Feb 14  Recent stories of exam cheating and drug use among Air Force launch officers have exposed the dangers of America’s nuclear weapons enterprise. Reports from other nuclear armed countries make it clear that their arsenals are no more secure or better managed than our own. And so we find ourselves peering, once again, into the nuclear madness.

Yes, two decades after the end of the Cold War, nuclear bombs are still with us. Nine countries possess 17,000 operational bombs, 95 percent of them in the U.S. and Russia. Though there is plenty of concern about the American stories, even more worrisome is the possibility of a nuclear war elsewhere in the world. The U.S. and Russia are unlikely to unleash their whole arsenals on each other, but what if Pakistan and India used 100 nuclear weapons against each other? ……

 It is time for concrete actions that President Obama can promptly take:

• Remove Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles from high alert which would decrease risk of accidental firing.

• Provide leadership at the second Humanitarian Impacts conference Feb. 14-15 in Mexico. The United States was unrepresented at the first conference. We must not abdicate responsibility.

• Dramatically reduce spending requests for new missiles, bombers and submarines in next year’s budget.

• Seek an agreement with Russia for reductions in nuclear weapons beyond the New START agreement.

• Propose a UN Security Council resolution banning nuclear weapon tests worldwide.

• Declare a “no first strike” policy.

We know what nuclear weapons can do. It is time to act.

Terrence Clark, MD is a psychiatrist. He is the chairperson of the Western North Carolina Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. The new PSR Report “Nuclear Famine: 2 Billion People at Risk?” is available as a PDF from www.psr.org http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20140208/OPINION03/302080004?odyssey=mod%7Cmostcom