In
the run-up to August’s United Nation’s 10th
Annual Review
of
the landmark Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a review
undertaken every five years, Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s
State Department issued a surprising reaffirmation
of
the U.S. commitment to this treaty and the “ultimate goal of a
world without nuclear weapons.”
The
NPT,
designed to “further the goal of achieving nuclear
disarmament,” entered into force in 1970 and was extended
indefinitely in 1995. It has now been signed by 191 nations,
including the U.S. and Russia.
If
only Blinken’s verbal support for the NPT was U.S. policy, as
opposed to wishful thinking or trickery.
As
treaty signatories and civil society representatives from around the
world gather for a month in New York to evaluate the treaty’s
implementation, the White House, Congress and military contractors
will move ahead on a near $2 trillion nuclear rearmament program
euphemistically termed “nuclear modernization.”
Modernization
is a kitchen upgrade. New touch-to-open cabinets. New LED recessed
lighting.
It
is not 600 new–instead of funeralized–intercontinental
ballistic missiles (ICBM’s) on hair trigger alert to replace
the Minuteman III in the Midwest. Each of these “modern
missiles” would span the length of a bowling lane with new
warheads that are 20
times more powerful
than
the bombs that incinerated Hiroshiima and Nagasaki.
Modernization
is not a new sea-launched nuclear cruise missile that carries both
conventional and nuclear warheads with the same radar profile to
confuse “the enemy.”
Modernization
is not 100 new stealth air-launched nuclear missiles like the B-21
Raider, also capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear
weapons.
Ahh,
but these nuclear weapons are just upgrades, not new systems, right?
Semantic
back-flips aside, U.S. nuclear “modernization” means the
development of new weapon systems with new nuclear warheads and a new
arms race. What the State Department failed to mention in its
reaffirmation of the NPT was that the U.S. nuclear rearmament program
violates the spirit and intent of Article
6 of
the NPT, which prohibits the pursuit of new nuclear weapons.
Instead
of pursuing world peace and climate preservation for our children, US
leaders are chasing a reckless foreign policy.
In
April, the Wall Street Journal published a commentary titled “The
U.S. should show it can win a nuclear war.”
More
recently, the City of New York, home of the United Nations, released,
however well-intentioned, a so-called public
service announcement
on
how to survive a nuclear attack, referring to it as “the big
one”, as though it were an earthquake. No mention was made of
blinding flashes of light or widespread radiation that blisters the
skin or immediate incineration. Instead, New Yorkers were instructed
to get inside, stay inside and stay tuned. Tuned to what? Our fading
heartbeats?
According
to the International Committee to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a
nuclear war between the US and Russia would lead to over 34-million
dead and 57 million injured in
the first few hours–and a dark subzero winter of famine and
soot blocking the sun for those who survived.
No
mention is made of this nightmare scenario, however, in the 2019
Joint
Chiefs Nuclear Operations Publication (3-72),
a Strangelovian document briefly released then deleted
from
the website of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The vanishing unclassified
document, preserved by the Federation of American Scientists,
reflects the Pentagon’s delusional thinking that a nuclear war
can be limited and won. Mark Milley, then Secretary of the Army, now
Chair of the Joint Chiefs, signed off on the chilling statements
below:
“A
nuclear weapon could be brought into the campaign as a result of
perceived failure in a conventional campaign, potential loss of
control or regime, or to escalate the conflict to sue for peace on
more-favorable terms.”
“Using
nuclear weapons could create conditions for decisive results and the
restoration of strategic stability …”
UN
treaty signatories, along with NGO conference delegates, should use
the month-long NPT operations review to speak truth to power.
First,
they should speak out against the dangerous proxy war in Ukraine
between the U.S./NATO and Russia that could lead to a nuclear
confrontation. The delegates should denounce Russian President
Vladmir Putin for ordering the invasion of Ukraine and call on all
parties in the war to engage in a negotiated settlement.
One
miscalculation, one moment of confusion, one intentional launch of a
short-range nuclear warhead, followed by a retaliatory long-range
nuclear weapon, could burn us alive and blanket the world in ash.
Delegates
should also call on the United States and NATO to denuclearize
Europe. This would entail removing US nuclear weapons from Belgium,
the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Turkey; scrapping plans to
redeploy nuclear weapons to the United
Kingdom,
where for 14 years nuclear storage facilities rightfully have sat
empty; and removing the provocative anti-ballistic missiles from
Romania and Poland, both of which are perilously close to Russia’s
border.
On
the broader issue of disarmament, attendees at the UN meetings should
shout “Come to your senses!” to the President Biden,
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake
Sullivan, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chair of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley for supporting nuclear rearmament.
Delegates should denounce members of Congress who recently voted
for
the $840 billion dollar military budget that includes $30 billion as
another down payment on the nuclear rearmament program.
Participants
at the UN gathering could also call on President Biden to declassify
his Nuclear Posture Review. Every administration is obligated by US
law to release a new Nuclear Posture Review outlining the
administration’s nuclear policy.
To
date, Biden’s Nuclear Posture Review remains a secret.
Classified.
Declassifying
the Review would allow the people of the United States, and the
world, to know whether President Biden is committed to keeping his
campaign promise of no first use of nuclear weapons and if he abides
by the Joint
Statement he
signed with Putin in 2021 and the Joint
Agreement he
signed in 2022 with five nuclear weapons states, including Russia and
China, committing the US to the NPT because “a nuclear war can
never be won and must never be fought.”
The
real solution to the threat of nuclear war is in plain sight. It is
the UN Treaty
on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,
the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively
prohibit nuclear
weapons.
It was adopted in July 2017 and entered into force in January 2021,
after it was ratified by 50 states. None of the nuclear states have
signed it.
The
NPT Review Conference is a golden opportunity for the participants,
and the public in general, to call on all nations to sign the UN
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to once and for all
embrace the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to, in the treaty’s
words, “pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures
relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and
to nuclear disarmament.”
Take
Action: Email
the White House
to
demand President Biden’s Nuclear Posture Review be made public.
Call your US Senators (202) 224-3121 to urge them to vote NO on the
2023 military budget or NDAA.
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