Friends,

Congressman Dennis Kucinich spoke at Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action on Sunday, August 7, 2011 during the organizations annual gathering to commemorate the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  His speech was timely and powerful, calling on the United States to take concrete steps to work toward a nuclear weapon’s free world.  He also called on the US to forge a new doctrine of Strength through Peace.  Kucinich wrapped up his speech by reminding us that it is up to we the people to “resolve that we shall become as architects of a new world free of fear, free of nuclear weapons, and free of war.”

The Obama administration’s long-delayed Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) was released today and, as expected, it’s a mixed bag. Outlining US nuclear weapons policy for the next 5-10 years, the NPR does reject some of the bad policies put forward by the Bush administration and helps to reduce the role nuclear weapons play in US security strategy.

On the other hand, the NPR definitely falls short of being a transformational document. Yesterday was the one year anniversary of Obama’s speech from Prague, in which he stated “clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” The NPR does not realign US nuclear weapons policy enough to achieve the ambitious agenda Obama laid out in that speech.

The Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), already postponed until today, has been delayed again as the Obama administration works to come to a final position on key issues. Now expected at the end of March or later, the NPR will be a critical document outlining US nuclear weapons policy for the next 5-10 years, and could put us on a path toward the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons or serve to stifle progress and maintain an unsustainable status quo.

An excellent New York Times editorial lays out the major decisions being made:

Friends,

In May 2010 nations will gather in New York City for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference.  This will be the year that the pressure will be on to set binding and enforceable targets for reducing and ultimately eliminating the signatories’ nuclear arsenals.  Of course, it will not be as simple as that since there are nations that are not signatories to the NPT that have developed nuclear weapons, the proverbial flies in the ointment.

No matter who currently has nuclear weapons, the entire world is at risk the longer nations maintain their arsenals.  Some arsenals, such as the United States’ and Russia’s, are so massive as to be ludicrous.  As of 2009, just the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile was estimated at 5,200 nuclear warheads, 2700 of those “operational” (in other words deployed and ready to go).  Do we really need that many nukes to “deter” another nation from attacking us???