A Nuclear Free World
Submitted by eorourke on January 23, 2007 - 2:55pm. --- Justice & Peace

Nuclear weapons and nuclear power pose the greatest threat to humankind’s existence. Our support systems are slowly dying through global warming and environmental degradation. A nuclear strike can easily cascade into nuclear winter in a hurry. To give human beings and the natural habitat some chance of survival, societies have to take steps that are not under serious discussion.

1) Take all nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert status (ready to launch with 15 minutes notice). This will give military establishments more time to assess threats. The world came close to nuclear destruction on January 25, 1995 when Norwegian scientists and American colleagues launched a satellite designed to study the Northern Lights. Although the Norwegian government had notified Russian authorities, not everyone got the word. To the Russian radar technicians, the rocket fit the profile of a US Trident missile that could blind the Russians’ radar defense by exploding a nuclear warhead in the upper atmosphere. The Russians activated the “nuclear football,” the briefcase of secret codes needed to order a missile attack. President Yeltsin came within three minutes of ordering his own, seemingly defensive, nuclear attack.

A negotiated international settlement to put all nuclear weapons with several hours or a day alert status would give time to consider options, test the data and avoid war.

2) Phase out nuclear energy. It only takes 8 pounds of weapons grade plutonium to make an atom bomb. Since annual production is 1,500 tons, potential terrorists have lots of sources to choose from. Investment in alternative fuels will help save us from global warming and shut down the terrorists’ ability to construct nuclear weapons.

3) Reduce nuclear weapons to zero. Former Defense Secretary McNamara considers current nuclear weapons policy as “immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary, and dreadfully dangerous.” In the January 4, 2007 issue of the Wall Street Journal, former Secretaries of State George P. Schultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger and former chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee Sam Nunn endorsed “setting the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.” They quoted former President Ronald Reagan’s call for the abolition of all nuclear weapons, which he considered “totally irrational, totally inhumane, good for nothing but killing, possibly destructive of life on earth and civilization.”

To survive, mankind must make far greater efforts in peacemaking, human rights and a worldwide anti-poverty program. Humanitarians have advocated such things for many years. Now it is a cold-blooded realpolitik survivors like Henry Kissinger who are calling for a world free of nuclear weapons, an idea at one time embraced by groups considered to be on the far leftist fringe.

Meanwhile military establishments have to train themselves to keep their fingers off the nuclear triggers when there is an unauthorized or accidental launch as well as a terrorist strike. Humankind cannot allow one unfortunate event cascade into a catastrophic that would end civilization.

Our media, political and military establishments must step up to the plate to bring about a peaceful world. This will call for transparency, cooperation and resources instead of secrecy, competition and business as usual. Mankind must brake this endless war cycle or war will end us.

For a fast start, President Bush could order the dismantling of 10,000 of our 11,000 nuclear weapons within a year and place all remaining weapons in a minimum 4-hour alert status. There are enough submarines with missiles to be a deterrent in the unlikely event that all land based missiles are wiped out. There is no rush for President Bush to do this. Tomorrow morning will be soon enough.

Ed O'Rourke is an environmental accountant in Houston.