Antinuclear

“Our species faces the stark choice of either eliminating the world’s nuclear weapons, or they will eliminate us”, so said Joseph Rotblat, senior Manhattan Project scientist who quit the project for ethical reasons after the Hiroshima bombing in 1945. These dangers are now greater than ever. Dealing with this threat to human survival is the main reason that Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) exists.

The 2016 World Conference against atomic and hydrogen bombs confirmed that nuclear powers still maintain more than 15,000 nuclear warheads, half ours. About 1,000 of them are ready for immediate launch.

Dr. Ira Helfand, active with PSR and International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War, has provided evidence that detonating even 100 nuclear weapons in a limited nuclear war could cause the deaths of as many as 2 billion people from massive starvation due to crop failures caused by a prolonged nuclear winter.

Recently, the risk of outbreak of nuclear war has sharply increased due to deteriorating relations between Russia and the U.S. Both nations are building smaller, more usable nuclear weapons.

Competing U.S./NATO and Russian military exercises have raised international tensions. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry has stated that nuclear war is more likely than during the Cold War. Russia has invaded and annexed Crimea and supports the Assad regime’s bombing attack in Syria. Eastern European countries feel threatened. NATO has expanded its presence on Russia’s border; increased military deployments and military exercises across Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and the Black Sea. The U.S. has quadrupled its military spending for Europe and U.S. first-strike related missile defenses in Romania and Poland. Russia has been threatened by operation “Anaconda”, in which the U.S. and NATO put 35,000 armed troops, warships and warplanes close to Russia’s border. Russia, Eastern European counties and the U.S. all feel threatened and are communicating less with each other.

How would we feel if Russia placed such weapons systems bordering the United States?

Our relationship with China has also deteriorated in part due to China’s aggressive behavior, such as island building. They feel threatened by our naval exercises increasingly close to China, including our construction of a new naval base in South Korea. According to Global Network, the Pentagon is sending ships, planes and special forces to the Philippines which concerns China. The U.S. already encircles China with many military bases that curve in an arc up from Australia, to Asia and across to Afghanistan.

Our presidential candidates largely ignore such dangers. President Obama has been considering initiatives to reduce the dangers from nuclear weapons. PSR is urging him to establish a clear policy of no-first-use and eliminate plans for spending a trillion dollars on nuclear weapons over the next 30 years. This includes the planned production of a new generation of smaller nuclear weapons, a development that increases the likelihood that they will be used.

Lowering the need for “first strike” weapons, including the next-generation of nuclear-armed cruise missiles would save billions of U.S. dollars and likely encourage other nuclear-armed states to follow suit. Benefits would also include reducing risks of miscalculation by adversaries by alleviating concerns about U.S. intentions of using nuclear weapons.

Since our media and our leadership largely ignore our threatening behavior toward Russia and China, it is essential that masses of citizens act immediately to press for reducing these dangers to our survival.

At 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25, PSR will join Asheville’s Veterans for Peace, Chapter 099, at their Pack Square vigil, to increase awareness of the need to strive for peaceful relations with Russia and China. Reducing the risk of the use of nuclear weapons dangers is an urgent task for our survival.

Please attend the vigil and lobby candidates and Congress for an end to wars of mass self-destruction.

I ask that you consider this information as you vote for president.

Lew Patrie, M.D. is with Western N.C. Physicians for Social Responsibility. He lives in Asheville.