We are writing to ask you to help prevent a second Korean War by supporting a critically needed bill that will prevent President Trump from attacking North Korea without Congressional approval. Your ability to have that big an impact may sound farfetched, so we’ll start with some background showing how just 600 Georgia voters helped get the New START arms control treaty passed in 2010. This is described in endnote 149 of our book (click for free PDF):
To bring New START to a vote, it first had to be voted out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where it was bottled up in September 2010. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) was a key vote and on the fence. A concerted effort by several NGOs [non-governmental organizations] got approximately 600 constituents to call his office during the three days prior to the committee vote. Isakson got off the fence and voted to bring the Treaty to a floor vote, though without saying how he would vote on the floor. In December, when that floor vote took place, the same kind of effort was mounted again, and Isakson did vote for the Treaty. While 600 phone calls in three days make a major impression on a senator, 600 people are only 0.006 percent of Georgia’s population.
Those 600 calls meant the phone in Sen. Isakson’s office was ringing roughly 25 times an hour, eight hours a day, three days in a row, each time with someone urging him to support New START. An organization that knew someone in the senator’s office reported that it felt like a tsunami of support for the treaty and helped move the senator’s thinking.
A similar opportunity exists today to reduce the risk of a second Korean War, probably involving the use of nuclear weapons. Congressman John Conyers and Senator Ed Markey have introduced H.R. 4140, the No Unconstitutional Strike Against North Korea Act of 2017 which will prohibit the president from attacking North Korea unless we or our allies have been attacked, or Congress approves the strike.
Congress should have reasserted its constitutionally mandated power to declare war long ago, but it took the fiery rhetoric of President Trump to create an opening where that might now happen. The bill was introduced five days ago with 61 cosponsors including two Republicans, Congressmen Thomas Massie and Walter B. Jones, Jr.
To become law the bill will need many more supporters, so we hope you will call your Congressional representatives and senators, ask who handles foreign and military affairs, and then email them this one page summary with easily verifiable facts that we have found has changed many minds already. As Senator Isakson’s change of heart shows, it doesn’t take that many committed constituents to effect a major change.
Other things you can do: If you are active with a civic or church group, suggest this as a group project. Post a link to this blog on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media. Email friends and do anything else you can think of to get these ideas out.
As that one page summary shows, our nation is laboring under a dangerous misimpression that greatly increases the risk of a catastrophic war. Thank you for whatever you do to help.