Dear CCI Friends,
America’s VIP elders, those most closely involved with nuclear weapons in the past, are speaking out with great concern and great clarity today. Read below. Will the current U.S. government and Congress listen … or will they continue with their reckless manner of avoiding the truth and putting us all in jeopardy? This is the question.
Secondly, Americans are for the most part unaware of how close we are to being exterminated by the nuclear weapons that now exist in Russian and American arsenals. We Americans have felt safe for so long, we feel so exceptional, that no one can attack us, and if they did, we could obliterate them. Today we have no treaties and no diplomacy between the United States and Russia to prevent another nuclear missile crisis. Only an uprising from below will change this situation.
How to wake America up? It won’t be easy. I’ll pose some questions at the end of this article that any of us can ask of our friends and family members to open up the discussion. Fortunately, we have a candidate running for the 2020 presidency who is addressing these issues head-on in YouTubes. We can expect she will do so during the presidential debates. This may finally wake up our people.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-threat-of-nuclear-war-is-still-with-us-11554936842
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
Wall Street Journal
April 10, 2019
The Threat of Nuclear War Is Still With Us
The U.S. must re-engage with Russia to ensure the ultimate weapon doesn’t spread and is never used
By George P. Shultz, William J. Perry and Sam Nunn
(Underlining by Sharon Tennison for people with little time to read)
The U.S., its allies and Russia are caught in a dangerous policy paralysis that could lead—most likely by mistake or miscalculation—to a military confrontation and potentially the use of nuclear weapons for the first time in nearly 74 years. A bold policy shift is needed to support a strategic re-engagement with Russia and walk back from this perilious precipice. Otherwise, our nations may soon be entrenched in a nuclear standoff more precarious, disorienting and economically costly than the Cold War. The most difficult task facing the U.S. is also the most important—to refocus on America’s most vital interests even as we respond firmly to Russia’s aggressions.
The three of us experienced the low points of U.S. relations with the Soviet Union, and the nuclear dangers that arose. The 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the 1981-83 confrontation over intermediate-range nuclear missiles were periods of increased tensions, reduced trust and rising nuclear risks. With Henry Kissinger, we wrote in 2007 that although the world escaped the nuclear knife’s edge of the Cold War through a combination of diligence, professionalism and good luck, reliance on nuclear weapons for deterrence is becoming increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective as more states gain nukes of their own. The U.S. and other nuclear states have yet to take decisive steps toward the goal of a world without nuclear weapons, and the dangers continue to mount.
Deterrence cannot protect the world from a nuclear blunder or nuclear terrorism. Both become more likely when there is no sustained, meaningful dialogue between Washington and Moscow. The risks are compounded by the rising possibility that cyberattacks could target nuclear warning and command-and-control systems, as well as the continuing expansion of global terrorist networks. Since the crises broke out in Ukraine and Syria in the past few years, U.S. and Russian forces have again been operating in proximity, increasing the risk that an act of aggression, followed by an accident or miscalculation, will lead to catastrophe.
A new comprehensive approach is required to decrease the risks of conflict and increase cooperation, transparency, and security. This will require a united effort in Washington and with U.S. allies on a Russia policy that reduces the unnecessary nuclear danger we are currently courting, while maintaining our values and protecting our vital interests.
The U.S. must first address its own dysfunctional Russia policy, and Congress must lead the way. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should convene a new bipartisan liaison group of legislative leaders and committee chairmen to work with senior administration officials on strengthening the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and renewing dialogue with Russia. This model was used in the arms-control observer group led by Sens. Robert Byrd and Bob Dole in the 1980s. The group was able to build bipartisan consensus for a defense modernization program that strengthened America’s defenses and bolstered NATO’s deterrence, as well as a Russia policy that led to negotiations eliminating missiles in Europe. These policies helped end the Cold War.
Second, Presidents Trump and Vladimir Putin should announce a joint declaration reaffirming that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. This would renew the 1985 Reagan-Gorbachev statement that Americans and Russians received positively as the beginning of an effort to reduce risk and improve mutual security. A joint statement today would clearly communicate that despite current tensions, leaders of the two countries possessing more than 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons recognize their responsibility to work together to prevent catastrophe. This could also lead other nuclear states to take further steps to reduce nuclear risk. The timing of such a statement would also signal Washington and Moscow’s commitment to build on past progress toward disarmament, as next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Third, the U.S. and Russia must discuss a broad framework for strategic stability—including increasing decision time for leaders—in a period of global destabilization and emerging military technologies. In a positive step, Presidents Trump and Putin apparently agreed in Helsinki last summer to open a dialogue on strategic stability, focused on nuclear dangers that threaten both nations. Yet their inability to follow up by empowering their military and civilian professionals to follow through underlines how dangerously dysfunctional relations have become.
This effort must begin now. America’s leaders cannot call a “time out” to wait for the aftermath of the Robert Mueller investigation or other issues to play out in Congress or the courts. Nor is there time to await a new U.S. administration, a new leader in the Kremlin, or the gradual resolution of current international disputes. The risks are simply too grave to put America’s vital interests on hold.
The U.S. and Russia should work toward a mutual vision for a more stable security architecture in the next five to 10 years, and identify the tools and policy initiatives necessary to get there. Our nations have a shared responsibility to communicate about crisis management, including between our armed forces, and to maintain our agreements on arms control and transparency. Where treaties are not likely or feasible, understandings and red lines are imperative.
The U.S. and Russia, joined by other nuclear states, must decisively confront the problems that threaten global security. It is essential that we re-engage with Russia in areas of common fundamental interest to both nations, including reducing reliance on nuclear weapons, keeping them out of unstable hands, preventing their use and ultimately ending them as a threat to the world.
Mr. Shultz served as secretary of state, 1982-89. Mr. Perry served as defense secretary, 1994-97. Mr. Nunn, a Democrat, was a U.S. senator from Georgia, 1972-97, and was chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
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So what can ordinary Americans do to educate on this issue? Let’s begin by asking questions which may start discussions. I’ll ask my adult children these questions and share what I learn. I’ll be interested to hear from you if you wish to try one or two questions with others.
Questions that might get the conversation started:
- Things seem to be getting pretty dicey with the Russians, are you concerned?
- What are people of your age thinking about nuclear weapons and war?
- I hear even accidents with nuclear weapons could start a war. What do you think?
- Is there a chance an unstable weapons keeper could go crazy and hit “the button?”
- Do you think there’s a possibility of a nuclear war on our soil?
- Would Russia attack us first? Or would we attack Russia? Is either likely?
- What can we do to keep our country as safe as possible?
- How about mandating Presidents Trump and Putin to meet on these issues?
- How about asking our Congress members to get serious about this issue?
Open up the dialogue, don’t try to convince them of anything, just get them to discuss some of these issues.
The odds are getting pretty frightening when our elders speak out on behalf of all of us!