From Peace Action (http://www.peace-action.org/):
We know from our administration contacts and from media reports that President Obama plans to take some final actions on nuclear weapons policy. These decisions are being deliberated now, so please urge the President to take the strongest steps possible to rid the world of nuclear weapons and reduce the chance that they would be used either on purpose or by accident at http://org.salsalabs.com/o/161/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=20091.
Founded on this issue nearly 60 years ago, our expectations were set high in 2009 when Obama gave his historic Prague speech where he stated his “commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” He took an important step by negotiating and pushing Senate ratification of New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) with Russia, which, among other important steps, reduced nuclear missile launchers by half and cut strategically deployed warheads by 10%. Obama also made us safer by holding four international Nuclear Security Summits to secure nuclear materials. Even with these positive steps, the Obama administration has set forth plans to completely upgrade the U.S. nuclear weapons program at a cost of $1 trillion dollars over 30 years.
President Obama has a little over five months to not only fulfill his Prague speech but to live up to his Nobel Peace Prize. Use our prewritten letter to pressure the White House to take compelling action towards a world free of nuclear weapons. These letters are more powerful if you can edit them in your own words and add how this issue affects you, your family and community.
Some possible steps include, but are not limited to:
- Declare No First Use. The U.S. says it is acceptable for it to use nuclear weapons first in certain scenarios.
- Take nuclear weapons off high alert. Currently, nuclear weapons can be launched within minutes, putting undue pressure on decision makers and increasing the possibility of launching on bad intelligence.
- Significantly reduce funding for upgrading the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The U.S. cannot afford nor do we need to spend $1 trillion on nuclear weapons.
- Reduce our strategic and reserve warheads. Even Pentagon experts agree we can easily reduce to 1,000 or less strategic warheads, also allowing us to reduce the several thousand warheads in reserve.
- Cancel the Long Range Stand Off missile (LRSO). This destabilizing new nuclear cruise missile is duplicative.
- Create a plan for all nuclear-armed states to negotiate complete nuclear disarmament.
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