nuclear-news

Consider the recent incident in which Turkey shot down a Russian fighter using U.S.-made weapons. It’s not hard to imagine escalation that could draw Turkey’s NATO allies into the conflict. Now consider that both the U.S and Russia have nuclear-armed missiles on hair-trigger alert, ready to launch within minutes.

Dozens of incidents have occurred in which the U.S. or Russia came close to launch due to faulty warning systems, misinterpretation of technical data and human error. We are one misjudgment away from all-out nuclear war. Most of the world’s nuclear weapons are still in the arsenals of the USA and Russia. Instead of complying with treaty obligations to pursue negotiations toward worldwide nuclear abolition, both countries still seek an impossible-to-achieve nuclear advantage.

Congress backs a trillion-dollar agenda for a new generation of warheads and the submarines, missiles and bombers to deliver them. This will mean enormous profits for companies such as Lockheed Martin, but will do nothing to reduce the threat that nuclear weapons would be used. It will have no impact whatsoever on access to “loose nukes” by terrorists, rogue states or anyone else.

Hillary Clinton and the other candidates ought to tell us what they will do to stand up to the nuclear weapons lobby and put us on the road toward nuclear weapons reduction and eventual abolition.