Archive for the ‘START’ Category

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Senate votes to begin debate on nuclear weapons treaty

December 15th, 2010 by Katie Heald from Groundswell Blog, from Peace Action West » Nuclear Weapons

This afternoon the Senate voted 66-32 to take up begin debating the New START Treaty on the floor! This is a major step toward getting a ratification vote before the end of the year.

Nine Republicans crossed party lines and voted Yes to begin working on the treaty this week: McCain (AZ), Graham (SC), Bennett (UT), Murkowski (AK), Brown (MA), Voinovich (OH), Collins (ME), Snowe (ME), & Lugar (IN). Nine Republicans gives us the margin we need to ratify the treaty in the final vote, as Think Progress explains:

The final vote was 66 to 32. While this was short of the magic number of 67, two senators did not vote, including Democratic Senator Evan Bayh who is expected to support the treaty. In other words, this vote indicates that treaty will likely have the 67 votes needed for ratification.


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DISARM NOW!!! Pass New START!

December 7th, 2010 by Leonard Eiger from The Nuclear Abolitionist

Friends,
I woke up this morning at Jean’s House of Prayer in Tacoma, Washington where I am helping prepare for the trial of the Disarm Now Plowshares 5 that begins today in U.S. District Court. As I looked out the window around 6:30AM I saw the bright lights of the Port of Tacoma, and wondered what it must have been like at that same time on November 2, 2009 as the Disarm Now Plowshares 5 topped the hill overlooking the Strategic Weapons Facility, Pacific (SWFPAC), bathed in bright light, looking like the mythical Mordor in J.R. Tolkein’s stories.
Mordor was a terrible, dark place, as is SWFPAC, which (along with the Trident nuclear submarines based at Bangor) contains enough nuclear weapons to end life as we know it on our small planet. Every step taken, whether by Plowshares activists like the Disarm Now Plowshares 5 or by our elected leaders to ratify treaties like New START are IMPORTANT.
Here is an important letter from past presidents of Physicians for Social Responsibility stressing the need to ratify the New START. Please read this and then take action to push the U.S. Senate to ratify New START now! And please hold the Disarm Now Plowshares 5 in your thoughts and prayers as they go on trial for attempting to do what all citizens are called to do – abolish these immoral and illegal nuclear weapons.

There will regular updates each day this week at the Disarm Now Plowshares Website and Blog.

Peace,

Leonard
The diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks this past week show a dangerously escalating nuclear confrontation in South Asia. This growing danger is one more reason why the US Senate should ratify new START without further delay.
Both US and British intelligence experts believe that Pakistan is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal, which now numbers 70 to 90 bombs, despite increasing economic and political instability. India has 60-80 warheads in its nuclear arsenal. According to the leaked reports, Pakistan fears that it would be overwhelmed in a conventional war, and looks to establish nuclear superiority to offset India’s advantage in conventional weapons.
The leaked cables also describe an Indian contingency plan, code named Cold Start, to launch just the kind of conventional invasion the Pakistanis fear. While Cold Start is meant to be a purely non-nuclear attack, the Pakistani nuclear build up suggests that it is likely that any future conflict in South Asia would escalate to nuclear war.
A regional nuclear war in South Asia would be catastrophic for the whole world.
Recent climate studies have shown that if only 100 warheads were directed at urban areas, the resulting fire storms would inject upwards of five terragrams ( 5 million tons) of soot into the upper atmosphere. In a matter of days temperatures across the globe would drop an average of 1.3 degrees C., more than twice the warming that has occurred in the last 130 years. There would also be a major decline in rainfall worldwide. These changes would persist for nearly a decade.
While there are no detailed studies of the decline in food production that would result from these climate changes, there is reason to believe that it would be very significant. A cooling event caused by the Pinatubo volcano eruption in 1815 dropped global temperatures only .7 degrees, and the fall in temperature lasted only 1 year, but that was enough to cause widespread famine in Europe and Asia, and the “Year Without a Summer” here in New England when killing frosts throughout the summer devastated crops.
There are over one billion people in the world today who live on the brink of starvation, and global food stockpiles are perilously low. A study that we presented at the Royal Academy of Medicine in 2007 concludes that we have reason to fear that all of these people might starve to death in the event of a nuclear war in South Asia.
What has this to do with New START? Everything.
US efforts to limit nuclear proliferation have been hobbled by our own continued reliance on nuclear weapons despite our having the strongest conventional forces in the world.
New START does not eliminate our arsenal. The 1550 warheads we still retain are enough to destroy India, Pakistan, Iran, North Korea, China and Russia—and to kill most of the people on Earth in the process. But New START is an important next step in limiting the US and Russian arsenals, and it is essential to the improved relations with Russia necessary for us to work with the Russians to limit nuclear proliferation. Further it restores our ability to monitor Russia’s nuclear arsenal, an ability we lost when the original START expired just one year ago.
The treaty is seen as vital to US security by our entire military leadership and a veritable “Who’s Who” of Republican defense experts. The original START treaty received overwhelming bi-partisan support in 1992, passing 93-6. But today’s Senate Republicans are threatening to block this replacement treaty unless the Senate agrees to extend the Bush era tax cuts for people making more than $1 million a year.
Republicans, including Senator Gregg, need to stop playing partisan politics with our national security and support this treaty NOW.
John Pastore, MD
Ira Helfand, MD
The authors are past Presidents of Physicians for Social Responsibility, US Affiliate of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize
Contact: Ira Helfand, MD at ihelfand@igc.org or 413 320 7829


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Republicans Hold Nuclear Weapons Treaty Ransom for Tax Cuts for Rich

December 2nd, 2010 by Joe Cicero from Groundswell Blog, from Peace Action West » Nuclear Weapons

Republican Senator John Kyl (R- AZ) laid his cards on the table regarding the START Treaty this week.  Republicans have been following his lead on the treaty, and he states he will continue to signal opposition to the treaty unless the White House and Democratic leadership agree to extend the Bush tax cuts for millionaires. During bipartisan meetings between Senate leaders, Republicans made it clear that eliminating 500 Nuclear Warheads aimed at America was not as high a priority as tax cuts for millionaires.

“If the taxes all can’t be resolved and voted on and completed and spending for the government for the next ten months completed by like next Monday, I don’t know how there’s enough time to complete START,” Kyl said.


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START: The Winter of Our Disconnect

November 21st, 2010 by Leonard Eiger from The Nuclear Abolitionist

Friends,

I can feel Winter settling in here in Washington’s Cascade Mountains as the snow falls this evening; there is a definite chill in the air. While the changing seasons are something to which we adjust, it is critical for continued progress in the control and ultimately the abolition of nuclear weapons that we avoid any “chilling” of relations between the U.S. and Russia.

Right now the Senate must ratify the New START Treaty in order for the Superpowers to get back on track to inspecting each other’s arsenals and exchanging information. This connection is necessary to secure ongoing cooperation and produce real security. Without the agreement we can forget about any reduction in the existing nuclear weapons stockpiles.

While ratification of New START is of such importance, there is a very real disconnect in Washington, DC., and not just among a few rogue senators who are trying to scuttle the treaty. Some senators, such as Jim Demint (S. Carolina), James Inhofe (Oklahoma) and Jon Kyle (Arizona) are holding New START hostage in exchange for increased funding of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex.

One of their claims is that the Obama administration isn’t doing enough to “modernize” the nations nuclear weapons. Judging by the current “modernization” of the nuclear weapons infrastructure along with the ongoing nuclear weapons work that includes the “stockpile stewardship program” (read “rebuilt warheads”) I’m not sure how much more they expect the administration to do.

As for the broad scope of this nuclear disconnect, the numbers speak for themselves; the administration had already pledged $80 billion over 10 years to maintain and modernize the nuclear weapons complex. As if this was not enough, Kyl has demanded an additional $4 billion over 5 years, and it appears that Obama is giving in. Even with this offer, it is not looking good for passage of New START by this Congress. Even though we have the 67 votes needed to ratify the treaty, Kyl is trying to prevent a vote until the next Congress!!!

It is inexcusable that these politicians who are supposed to represent “the people” are playing games with the nation’s (and the world’s) security. First of all, passage of New START is of the utmost importance. Secondly, increasing funding to modernize the nuclear weapons complex and build new weapons neutralizes any previous efforts to reduce our reliance on nuclear weapons (and send a message of hope to other nations).

Non-ratification of New START is NOT an option! Neither is building up an essentially NEW nuclear weapons infrastructure. Both indicate a disconnect between the people’s desire to abolish nuclear weapons and the special interests of those who claim to represent us, but who are far too heavily invested (literally and figuratively) in the Military-Industrial Complex and its parent, the National Security State.

We must not cut anyone even an inch of slack on an issue of such critical importance as New START. Although many senators have shown their support for New START (and we should thank them for that) we now need to demand that they apply some serious pressure to those who hold it hostage.


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Stop Republican delay tactics

November 19th, 2010 by Katie Heald from Groundswell Blog, from Peace Action West » Nuclear Weapons

Who will triumph in one of the last big political battles of 2010? The Republicans, Democrats, security experts, military officials and 73% of the American public who support ratifying New START? Or Senator Jon Kyl and his right wing cronies who are playing partisan politics with nuclear security?

You can help determine the outcome. Click here to tell your senators you want them to vote yes on New START and to do it now.

Sen. Kyl says Republicans need more time to think about this treaty. But in the year since the last START treaty expired, the Senate has held 21 hearings on New START and the administration has answered more than 900 questions from Republicans. Every reasonable national security expert has come out in favor of this treaty. There is no excuse for delaying an agreement that helps decrease the threat from nuclear weapons.


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