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Vieques: A Lost Paradise or Paradise Lost?
The ferryboat departs from Fajardo, a tiny seaport at the extreme Northeast of Puerto Rico. During the trip we can see a great number of fish jumping like trying to fly from the blue waters and then defeated by gravity falling again into the water. Our destination is the island of Vieques, 18 miles from Fajardo. Called "La Isla Nena" (Little Girl Island) or "Isabel Segunda" (Isabel II), Vieques was founded in [...]
Our Own Worst Enemy
The U.S and Russia have so many nuclear weapons that if used, either alone could destroy humanity. The Center for Defense Information said, "It is folly, verging on madness, to perpetuate the Cold War nuclear confrontation at levels that threaten the survival of human kind." (1) How do we explain such a crazy situation? Consider the following. When thinking about nuclear weapons matters, it is much easier and less hideous to think [...]
The US-Russian Relationship: Shooting Ourselves in the Foot
Russia proposed, in August meetings with US arms control negotiators, that each country agree to cut its supply of missile-ready nuclear bombs from 5,000 down to 1,500 strategic nuclear weapons. The Russian offer would allow for a full accounting of all warheads and provide for early de-alerting of bombs poised at hair-trigger readiness, which would considerably ratchet down the nuclear danger to our planet. Were the US to follow through on this [...]
Interview with Olara A. Otunnu, UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict
Mr. Otunnu, I started to study the issue of child soldiers almost two months ago and since then I discovered the tough reality that these children have to face every day. Today there are almost 300,000 child soldiers around the world and that number is constantly growing. Do you think there is a chance to reduce that number and how would it be possible? Yes, we can reduce that number assuming a [...]
Interview with Hiro Takeda
"... as hibakusha I think I have the responsibility inform people of the danger of the bomb, the radiation and the effect it has on human beings, because there are a lot of people still in Hiroshima who have suffering from the radiation. And as for my self I haven’t had anything serious but I have been going to the doctor ever since the dropping of the bomb." (Hiro Takeda) Mr. Takeda [...]
Facing Nuclear Dangers and Flinching – Comments on the Final Report of the Tokyo Forum
The Final Report of the Tokyo Forum is entitled, "Facing Nuclear Dangers: An Action Plan for the 21st Century." The Report, however, is not nearly as bold as its title would suggest. A clue as to why this may be so is found in paragraph 12 of the opening section of the Report where it states, "Terrorism using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons has been possible for some time, but serious policymakers [...]
Abolition 2000 at the Year 2000
Abolition 2000 is rapidly approaching the year 2000, a moment of truth for the global Network. General Lee Butler, a powerful advocate of abolition, offered these observations: "Turning specifically to the agenda, tactics and timetable of the abolition community, I see a widening gulf between its aspirations and their prospects, especially in the near term. That disparity is most immediately obvious in the disjunction between the name of the umbrella organization, 'Abolition [...]
Defended to Death
India and Pakistan are governed by madmen. The prime ministers are mad, the generals, scientists, civil servants all mad. The proof of their madness is their paranoid obsession with security and nuclear weapons. What, after all, could be more insane than two desperately poor countries, struggling to feed, educate, and house their people spending scarce resources on preparing to murder millions of innocent people, then glorying in their capability and willingness to [...]
The Nuclear History of Micronesia and the Pacific
"The first shot, Bravo, the largest single nuclear explosion conducted by the United States, with a destructive capability more than one thousand times that of the Hiroshima bomb, was detonated on 1 March 1954. The explosion was so powerful it vaporized several small islands …" "...To this day, peoples of Rongelap, Bikini, Enewetak, and many in the Marshall Islands continue to suffer from cancer, miscarriages, and tumors." While it is harrowing that [...]
Season of Hiroshima
The season of Hiroshima arrives each August in the heat of summer. The bomb exploded over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and three days later a second bomb exploded over Nagasaki. Total destruction. The flattening of cities, the incineration of all forms of life. It is a season of memory, reflection, and rededication to the future of life. Hiroshima was the awakening of the Nuclear Age. It was a moment in history [...]
“We, The People”: Weaponization and Citizenship
"'We, the people' who, according to the preamble of our constitution are entrusted with sovereign power, have not been expected to participate in the decision making process on a matter as serious as this. We have been relieved of the responsibility of citizenship, spared the trouble of debating and deciding about the developmental priorities of our poor nation and the desired budgetary allocations across sectors. We have been told and, in turn, [...]
The City of Hiroshima Peace Declaration
"Today as Hiroshima marked its 54th anniversary of the atomic bombing of our city, we solemnly held the Peace memorial Ceremony in front of the Memorial Cenotaph in Peace Memorial Park, Japan, with thousands of people from Japan and overseas....This Peace Declaration expresses our desire for the abolition of nuclear weapons and the realization of lasting world peace. The situation of the world is still changing suddenly. I would appreciate it if [...]
Objections to Nanoose Expropriation
Background I am the president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and have served in this position for 17 years. The Foundation is a non-governmental education and advocacy organization with headquarters in Santa Barbara, California. It has members in many countries throughout the world, including Canada. The Foundation is a United Nations Peace Messenger Organization, and is on the roster in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Our [...]
The Spirit of Hiroshima
I am a hibakusha, a survivor of Hiroshima. In 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. I was 12 years old, a 7th grader at girls' junior high school. I was exposed to the A-bomb at a point less than a mile away from the epicenter. On the morning of August 6, 1945, the skies were perfectly clear without a sign of clouds. As the sun of midsummer arose, the [...]
Arms Trade Code of Conduct
As of this writing, about 33 wars are raging across the world and 90% of their casualties are civilians. Over 25 million people have been killed in conflicts since the end of World War II. Yet rather than pursuing real disarmament, governments are spending over $2 billion every single day on armies and weapons. And regimes that abuse human rights are eagerly supplied by the world's arms producers. A global Arms Trade [...]
Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Abolish War
Choose peace and a human future, and make sure that your voice is heard! If nuclear weapons are relied upon for security, sooner or later they will be used by accident or design. That we have had these weapons in our midst for some fifty years provides no proof or promise that they will not be used in the future. In fact, if some nations continue to rely upon nuclear weapons for [...]
From Pokharon to Kargil: The Nuclear Danger is No Fantasy
However one looks at its genesis and its remarkably inept handling by New Delhi, the Kargil crisis highlights, as nothing else, the sub-continent's strategic volatility and the fragility of the Lahore process. If the Indian army had to wait till May 6 to be informed of the unprecedentedly large-scale intrusion by a shepherd, and then took six days to report this to the defence ministry, and if the ministry two days later [...]
Nuclear Weapons, Ethics, Morals and Law
This article was an NGO Presentation for the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty Prepcom of 1999 and The Hague Appeal for Peace addressing nuclear weapons, morals, ethics, spiritual values, the Culture of Peace, and law. Organizations participating in creation of this presentation include NGO Committee on Disarmament, World Conference on Religion and Peace, Temple of Understanding, Pax Christi International, Franciscans International, Interfaith Center of New York, State of the World Forum, and Lawyers [...]
Analysis of NPT PrepComm III
Summary The third and final preparatory meeting for the 2000 Review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) concluded at 10:30 p.m. May 21st with an agreement to disagree. In the arcane world of nuclear diplomacy, this was considered a step forward, since the 1998 Second PrepComm had concluded in disarray without an agreement that the parties disagreed. The 1999 action was but a thin cover over the deadlock persisting between the Western Nuclear [...]
A Cold Warrior Looks to Ban the Bomb After a Career in Brinkmanship
"Butler is highly motivated in his quest to ban nuclear weapons, but then again he knows what those weapons can do when perhaps the rest of us have forgotten." Retired Gen. George L. (Lee) Butler is among the very few whose job description has included the power to destroy the planet. As he recalled during a telephone conversation last week: "I lived for three years, every day of my life, with the [...]
General George Lee Butler University of Pittsburgh Speech
" ... it is my profound conviction that nuclear weapons did not, and will not, of themselves prevent major war. To the contrary, I am persuaded that the presence of these hideous devices unnecessarily prolonged and intensified the Cold War. In today's security environment, threats of their employment have been fully exposed as neither credible nor of any military utility." Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen, and thank you Wes for your gracious [...]
Nuclear Nationalism
On May 28th last year the government of Pakistan followed that of India and tested nuclear weapons. While everyone else worried about the prospect of nuclear war in South Asia, Eqbal Ahmad, who died recently, predicted that Pakistan's nuclear tests would have a more profound impact on its domestic politics than on its defence or foreign policies. As on so many other occasions he was proven right. In early May, the government [...]
No More Kosovos!
I would like to discuss with you what the Global Action to Prevent War program could have done in helping to prevent the Kosovo crisis, what contribution it still might make to a solution there, and what it could do to prevent future Kosovos and Rwandas. This is a practical way of reviewing the part of the Global Action to Prevent War program that deals with preventing internal conflict and of eliciting [...]
NATO: Abandon First Strike Doctrine, De-Alert Nuclear Weapons
The world has changed dramatically, even NATO itself has changed, not necessarily for the better, but NATO nuclear policy, based upon nuclear deterrence and a first use option, has not changed. For its first 40 years NATO was a defensive alliance. Its purpose was to defend against an attack on Western Europe by the Soviet Union. NATO relied heavily on the threat to use nuclear weapons to thwart such an attack. Regardless [...]
Factsheet on Nuclear Arsenals and Y2K: Potential Y2K Vulnerabilities in Nuclear Operations
There is a real danger of Y2K errors compromising nuclear safety. However, this danger is not in the weapons themselves. The nuclear missiles and warheads will not spontaneously launch or explode due to Y2K malfunctions. Launch control officers in submarines and ICBM launch control centers must physically turn keys, which are electromechanical in nature rather than digital. Also, for the officers' actions to be translated into a real launch, a correct "unlock" [...]