End the Nuclear Danger: An Urgent Call

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From: The Nation Magazine <emailnation@...>

FEATURE STORY | June 24, 2002

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020624 & s=schell2

End the Nuclear Danger: An Urgent Call

by Schell, Randall Caroline Forsberg, Cortright

DECADE after the end of the cold war, the peril of nuclear destruction is

mounting. The great powers have refused to give up nuclear arms, other

countries are producing them and terrorist groups are trying to acquire

them.

POORLY GUARDED warheads and nuclear material in the former Soviet Union may

fall into the hands of terrorists. The Bush Administration is developing

nuclear " bunker busters " and threatening to use them against nonnuclear

countries. The risk of nuclear war between India and Pakistan is grave.

DESPITE THE END of the cold war, the United States plans to keep large

numbers of nuclear weapons indefinitely. The latest US-Russian treaty, which

will cut deployed strategic warheads to 2,200, leaves both nations facing

" assured destruction " and lets them keep total arsenals (active and

inactive, strategic and tactical) of more than 10,000 warheads each.

THE DANGERS POSED by huge arsenals, threats of use, proliferation and

terrorism are linked: The nuclear powers' refusal to disarm fuels

proliferation, and proliferation makes nuclear materials more accessible to

terrorists.

THE EVENTS of September 11 brought home to Americans what it means to

experience a catastrophic attack. Yet the horrifying losses that day were

only a fraction of what any nation would suffer if a single nuclear weapon

were used on a city.

THE DRIFT TOWARD catastrophe must be reversed. Safety from nuclear

destruction must be our goal. We can reach it only by reducing and then

eliminating nuclear arms under binding agreements.

WE THEREFORE CALL ON THE UNITED STATES AND RUSSIA TO FULFILL THEIR

COMMITMENTS UNDER THE NONPROLIFERATION TREATY TO MOVE TOGETHER WITH THE

OTHER NUCLEAR POWERS, STEP BY CAREFULLY INSPECTED AND VERIFIED STEP, TO THE

ABOLITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS. AS KEY STEPS TOWARD THIS GOAL, WE CALL ON THE

UNITED STATES TO:

§ RENOUNCE the first use of nuclear weapons.

§ Permanently END the development, testing and production of nuclear

warheads.

§ SEEK AGREEMENT with Russia on the mutual and verified destruction of

nuclear weapons withdrawn under treaties, and increase the resources

available here and in the former Soviet Union to secure nuclear warheads and

material and to implement destruction.

§ STRENGTHEN nonproliferation efforts by ratifying the Comprehensive Test

Ban Treaty, finalizing a missile ban in North Korea, supporting UN

inspections in Iraq, locating and reducing fissile material worldwide and

negotiating a ban on its production.

§ TAKE nuclear weapons off hairtrigger alert in concert with the other

nuclear powers (the UK, France, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Israel)

in order to reduce the risk of accidental or unauthorized use.

§ INITIATE talks on further nuclear cuts, beginning with US and Russian

reductions to 1,000 warheads each.

TO SIGN THE STATEMENT, GO TO URGENTCALL.ORG OR SEND NAME,

ORGANIZATION/PROFESSION (FOR ID ONLY) AND CONTACT INFORMATION TO URGENT

CALL, C/O FOURTH FREEDOM FORUM, 11 DUPONT CIRCLE NW, 9TH FLOOR, WASHINGTON,

DC 20036. WE NEED TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS, MADE TO URGENT CALL, TO

DISSEMINATE THIS CALL. PLEASE MAIL TO THE SAME ADDRESS.

THIS CALL WAS DRAFTED BY JONATHAN SCHELL, THE HAROLD WILLENS PEACE FELLOW OF

THE NATION INSTITUTE AND THE AUTHOR OF THE FATE OF THE EARTH; RANDALL

CAROLINE (RANDY) FORSBERG, DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE FOR DEFENSE AND

DISARMAMENT STUDIES AND AUTHOR OF THE " CALL TO HALT THE NUCLEAR ARMS RACE, "

THE MANIFESTO OF THE 1980s NUCLEAR WEAPONS FREEZE CAMPAIGN; AND DAVID

CORTRIGHT, PRESIDENT OF THE FOURTH FREEDOM FORUM AND FORMER EXECUTIVE

DIRECTOR OF SANE.

>There are numerous ways you can help pull the world back from the brink of

>nuclear insanity: Sign the Call, make a tax-deductible donation to help

>disseminate the Call, present the Call in your local community, email this

>note to everyone you know, and join up with one of the many terrific groups

>working toward the goal of complete nuclear abolition.

>

>To sign the Call, and for much more info, go to:

>

>http://urgentcall.org

>

>And check out The Nation's compilation of some of the major and

>not-so-major groups working in the field, including who they are, what

>they're doing, and how you can help. All available at:

>

>http://www.thenation.com/special/20020606call.mhtml

>

>As one of its chief signatories and author of the seminal antinuclear text

>The Fate of the Earth, Nation Institute Fellow Schell explains the

>Call's necessity in an accompanying Nation essay detailing the growing

>nuclear perils of our age. Read this essay now at:

>

>http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020624 & s=schell2

>

>As Schell explains, the cloud of nuclear danger is blacker at this moment

>than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis. Along the Line of Control

>in Kashmir, one million soldiers confront one another across the

>Indian/Pakistan border in the world's greatest military mobilization since

>World War II.

>

>Writing from New Delhi, author Praful Bidwai offers possible ways out of

>this potential conflgration in a new Nation editorial, available now at:

>

>http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020624 & s=pbidwai

>

>And in a special web report, famed Indian writer Arundhati Roy issues a

>rare statement of the most basic sanity and humanity in a world in which

>mad has come to mean not individual anger or craziness but mutually

>assured destruction.

>

>Read this powerful essay now at:

>

>http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special & s=roy20020604

>

>And after reading that, get involved in one of the upcoming nationwide

>antinuclear marches, protests and events.

>

>One of the largest is expected in NYC next Wednesday. On the occasion of

>the twentieth anniversary of the historic June 12, 1982 demonstration in

>Central Park, long-time disarmament activists Randall Forsberg,

>Cortright and Cora Weiss join other former SANE/Freeze organizers to spark

>a new movement to abolish nuclear weapons. Speakers include Rep. Dennis

>Kucinich, Grace Paley, Ossie , Ruby Dee and Schell, among

>many others.

>

>Society for Ethical Culture

>64th Street and Central Park West

>June 12, 7:00pm

>FREE

>For info, call 212-870-2304, or go to:

>http://www.urgentcall.org/php/new_june12pr.php

>

>And for info on other related events, check out The Nation's special

>antinuclear events calendar at:

>

>http://www.thenation.com/special/2002june12.mhtml

>

>Finally, please check out The Nation's special antinuclear archive of

>articles, essays, editorials and columns featuring material all originally

>published in the pages of The Nation.

>

>Featured pieces include Albert Einstein's 1931 plea for disarmament at a

>time when the destructive power of the atom had yet to be unleashed,

>then-Nation editor Freda Kirchwey's 1945 meditation on the bomb and the

>Cold War, The Nation editors' comments on the 1982 peace march, E.L.

>Doctorow's 1995 essay on mythologizing the bomb and Schell's classic 1998

>call The Gift of Time, among many other selections.

>

>All this and much more currently available at:

>

>http://www.thenation.com/special/nukearchive.mhtml

>

>The goal of nuclear abolition is ambitious. Many say that it's

>unrealistic. But a nuclear revival is clearly under way. And without a

>revival of nuclear protest in turn, all of our days may literally be

>numbered. So, please try to get involved today.

>

>Best Regards,

> Rothberg, Associate Publisher