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An
Urgent Call
Ending Threats
of Mass Destruction
Today,
cities and nations are threatened as never before by weapons
of mass destruction.
The
events of September 11 have brought home to Americans
what it means to experience a catastrophic attack. Yet
the horrifying losses that day were but a fraction of
what any nation would suffer if a single nuclear weapon
were used on a city, or a deadly, contagious disease were
set loose in the land.
The peril
from weapons of mass destruction is growing.
Even as the
great powers have refused to give up their nuclear arms,
more nations have built nuclear weapons and threatened
to use them. Terrorist groups are now seeking to acquire
and use all kinds of weapons of mass destruction.
The threats
posed by huge stocks, proliferation, and terrorists can
no longer be considered in isolation from one another.
The nuclear
powers' refusal to disarm fuels proliferation, and proliferation
makes weapons of mass destruction ever more accessible
to terrorists.
Despite
the end of the Cold War, U.S. administrations of both
parties have
planned to keep nuclear weapons indefinitely.
Recently, the
Bush administration’s Nuclear Posture Review proposed
to reduce "active" warheads; but this plan would
keep the whole U.S. nuclear arsenal, active plus reserve,
at its present size of about 10,000 warheads through 2012.
Meanwhile,
President Bush has requested funds to expand nuclear weapon
construction facilities and develop "usable"
nuclear weapons for a growing list of targets in the third
world.
This drift
toward catastrophe must be reversed. The time has come
to say, Enough!
Enough!
to the great powers who hold vast populations
hostage to nuclear terror. Enough! to nations that are spreading the threat
of annihilation to new regions. Enough! to the terrorists who plan the murder
of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Safety from
all weapons of mass destruction must be our goal.
We can reach
it only through cooperation among nations embodied in
binding treaties and agreements.
We therefore
call on the governments of the nuclear powers to commit
themselves to abolish nuclear weapons
and
to set forth plans to move together, step by carefully
inspected and verified step, toward this goal.
As a first
step,
we call on the United States and Russia to reduce their
nuclear arsenals over the next few years, tactical and
strategic, active and reserve, to 1,000 weapons each.
As a second
step,
we call on these countries and the other nuclear powers—the
UK, France, China, Israel, Pakistan, and India to proceed
in the following few years to reduce their arsenals to
no more than 100 nuclear weapons each.
As a third
step,
these nations should separate all nuclear warheads from
their delivery vehicles, in preparation for their ultimate
elimination.
Simultaneously, the nuclear powers should strengthen
the Nonproliferation Treaty by ratifying the Comprehensive
Test Ban and adopting a Ban on the Production of Fissile
Material. The United States should complete talks to end
North Korea's missile program, and the UN should institute
an effective inspection regime in Iraq. The existing international
bans on chemical and biological weapons should be made
universal and fortified with stronger means of inspection
and verification. Thus, measures to prevent proliferation
and terrorist uses of weapons of mass destruction would
go hand in hand with nuclear reductions.
Steps to
eliminate weapons of mass destruction should be accompanied
by
steps to reduce the temptation to acquire or use them.
The United
States and other countries should redouble their efforts
to resolve regional conflicts and prevent conventional
war, and to build respect for the rule of law, protect
human rights, and promote democratic institutions. And
the wealthy industrial nations should launch a new Marshall
Plan to help the poorest nations end starvation, illiteracy,
and preventable disease, wipe out the burden of debt,
and move toward sustainable development and a lasting
peace, based on respect for the dignity and worth of every
individual.
STEP 1
Within the
next few years, the United States and Russia should cut
their nuclear arsenals (in the USA, over 10,000 warheads)
to no more than 1,000 each, active and reserve, strategic
and tactical.
Jane Alexander
David Cortright Randy Forsberg Robert Jay Lifton
Julian
Bond Amb. Jonathan Dean Joe Gerson Eleanor Holmes Norton
Betty
Bumpers Michael Douglas Jane Goodall Jonathan Schell
Joan
Brown Campbell Ronnie Dugger Mark O. Hatfield Martin Sheen
Rev.
William Sloane Coffin Mark S. Epstein Barbara Kingsolver
Admiral Stansfield Turner Jim Wallis
To sign the statement, please send name by email to appeal@urgentcall.org,
or by mail to Urgent Call, c/o Fourth Freedom Forum, 11
Dupont Circle N.W. 9th Fl.,
Washington D.C. 20036.
May
2002
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