The Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is a fraud as the nuclear Mafia continue to spend $billions on their nuclear arsenals.

By Robin Lloyd of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) 19 Aug 22

“This a critical moment for nuclear disarmament, and for our collective survival.” wrote Ray Acheson of Reaching Critical Will commenting on the Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference taking place NOW at the United Nations.

I attended the Conference for several days last week as a NGO delegate from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), and have been watching closely the negotiations going on for the entire month of August 2022 over an outcome statement for the Conference.

After two weeks a draft preamble was submitted that reaffirms , amongst other things, “

…that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, and commits to ensuring that nuclear weapons will never be used again under any circumstances.”

This could be an extraordinary breakthrough towards global nuclear disarmament. 191 nations are represented in this treaty and are seated in the General Assembly hall now, until August 26, listening to each other. In the first week, we heard urgent warning statements from the nations without nuclear weapons, such as “The clouds that parted following the end of the Cold War are gathering once more,” and, from Costa Rica, scolding, “The lack of firm deadlines has provided the nuclear-armed States with a pathway to disregard their disarmament commitments as flagrantly as they have since the last Review Conference.”

In a hopeful step, in the last year, 89 non-nuclear states have either signed or ratified a binding disarmament treaty, the TPNW (Treaty PROHIBITING Nuclear Weapons) that requires disarmament commitments. These states are no longer tolerating the double talk from the nine nation nuclear mafia.

How can the US consider signing the draft preamble while the House and Senate are finalizing the National Defense Authorization Act which calls for the modernization of our nuclear arsenal? How can our government even take part in this Conference while it is seeking funding for a renewed nuclear edifice of destruction including Modernized Strategic Delivery Systems and Refurbished Nuclear Warheads? Over the next decade, the United States plans to spend $494 billion on its nuclear forces, or about $50 billion a year, according to a 2019 Congressional Budget Office report. Trillions of dollars for submarines and bombers and buried nuclear missiles. Things they are committing to not use. Please, does this make sense?

At one of the NGO meetings I attended in the basement of the UN sponsored by peace groups, I blurted out “This Conference IS A FRAUD.” The nuclear mafia have no serious plans to disarm, as required by Section 6 of the NPT Treaty. Their duplicity could be rebuked to the world by a walkout in the final days of the conference by the countries that have signed/ratified the TPNW, and their supporters.

For the NPT Treaty to collapse would be tragic, but for it to continue when everyone knows it is a lie is a moral and mortal affront to the people of the world.