UN General Assembly approves historic resolution seeking to abolish nuclear weapons

Press release from Physicians for Nuclear Responsibility:

PSR lauds UN nuclear weapons vote as antidote to toxic nuclear posturing by Trump and Putin.   United Nations, "as if to reply," moves to negotiate treaty banning nuclear weapons

More information:

Ira Helfand, MD, IPPNW Co-president & PSR Board  ihelfand@igc.org   cell 413 320-7829

Martin Fleck, PSR Security Program Director    mfleck@psr.org   202 587-5242

Washington, DC    In an historic victory for nuclear disarmament advocates, a large majority of nations voted today in the General Assembly to convene negotiations in 2017 for a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons, leading to their total elimination. Resolution L.41 won by a vote of 113 for, 35 against, with 13 abstentions.

“In the last two days, President Vladimir Putin and President-elect Donald Trump have made irresponsible statements about nuclear weapons, harking back to the worst days of the Cold War. As if to reply, UN nations declared today--with an overwhelming 70% vote--that it’s time to prohibit nuclear weapons. The UN majority offers an alternative to the dangerous saber rattling of Putin and Trump,"  -- said Martin Fleck, PSR Security Program Director.

"Nuclear weapons do not contribute to our security.  Rather, they are the greatest threat to our survival.  We cannot be comfortable or complacent that ‘wise hands’ will be in charge of these weapons.  We need to move with speed and determination toward elimination before our luck runs out and they are used again,”   -- said Ira Helfand, MD, PSR Security Committee co-chair and Co-president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

“It’s not wishful thinking to expect that humanity can completely rid the world of nuclear weapons.  It’s wishful thinking to imagine that we can continue along the current path without an eventual humanitarian catastrophe. Even 100 nuclear bombs exploding in India and Pakistan can unleash world famine,”  -- said PSR Executive Director Catherine Thomasson, MD.    

In a joint statement in May, 2016, the World Medical Association, the World Federation of Public Health Associations, the International Council of Nurses and the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War -- representing more than 15 million health professionals worldwide -- declared, "A proper understanding of what nuclear weapons will do invalidates all arguments for continued possession of these weapons. . . . The only way to prevent the use of nuclear weapons is to ban and eliminate them." 

L.41 mandates that the UN will “convene a conference in 2017 to negotiate a legally-binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading toward their total elimination” The conference will convene on March 27, 2017.

PSR, a member organization of over 30,000, seeks to address the gravest threats to human health and survival.  The group’s motto is “Prevention is the only cure.” PSR’s international federation, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, received the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.

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The International Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons has reported on this story.

Trump Says U.S. Would ‘Outmatch’ Rivals in a New Nuclear Arms Race

The New York Times has reported on Russian President Putin and U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump's recent statements effectively announcing a new nuclear arm race between the two countries:

“The statements made by President-elect Trump undermine decades of work the United States and its allies have been involved in to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles and to prevent the additional proliferation of nuclear weapons,” said Byron L. Dorgan, a former senator from North Dakota and a board member at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. “A nuclear arms race puts everyone on this planet in greater danger.”

"Let it be an arms race": Donald Trump Tweet Raises Prospect of New Global Arms Race

As reported by Democracy Now! in its morning headlines:

President-elect Donald Trump raised the prospect of a new global arms race on Thursday, after he suggested on Twitter he would increase the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Trump’s tweet read, "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes." At the State Department, the outgoing Obama administration spokesperson John Kirby was asked about the tweet.

John Kirby: "I can’t speak for the president-elect’s nuclear views or his policy going forward. That’s for him and his team to speak to. What I can speak to is the approach that this administration has taken to try to get us on on a path to a world without nuclear weapons."

Despite President Obama’s call for an end to nuclear weapons, his administration has been quietly upgrading its nuclear arsenal to create smaller, more precise nuclear bombs as part of a massive effort that will cost up to $1 trillion over three decades. Speaking to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday, Trump’s former campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, defended the president-elect’s tweet, pointing to President Obama’s nuclear plans.

Kellyanne Conway: "I don’t think the tweet was groundbreaking in this regard. It seems that President Obama himself has invested––has called for an upgrade in our capabilities. I’ve read in one or two articles, up to $1 trillion is the price tag. So, we all—you know, President Obama, President-elect Trump—everyone shares the same, I think, core value, and their first duty is to try to keep us all safe. And we know it’s a dangerous world, and that includes nuclear weapons."

That was Trump’s former campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, who Trump named yesterday as counselor to the president. This morning, MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski said she spoke briefly to the president-elect on the phone and asked him about his nuclear weapons comments. Brzezinski recounted Trump’s response during a conversation with co-host Joe Scarborough.

Joe Scarborough: "Mika asked the president-elect, while we had the opportunity, what his position was on—trying to clarify the tweet yesterday regarding the nuclear arsenal. And the president-elect told you what?"

Mika Brzezinski: "Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass."

Joe Scarborough: "And outlast them all."

Mika Brzezinski: "And outlast them all."

According to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, about 93 percent of all nuclear warheads are owned by Russia and the United States, which together have about 14,000 warheads stockpiled.

(In the longer segment linked below, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! pointed out "And, yes, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were sitting in their pajamas in front of a fire as they spoke." CommonDreams coverage added "...and slippers," complete with a photo.)

Democracy Now's Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales then interviewed Greenpeace USA's executive director, Annie Leonard, about Trump's Dr. Strangelovian Tweet and flippan "Let it be an arms race" line, in a segment entitled "Absolutely Frightening: Greenpeace Responds to Trump's Call for a New Nuclear Arms Race."

Greenpeace was founded initially to protest a U.S. nuclear weapons test blast in Amchitka, Alaska, that they feared would generate a deadly tsunami wave. Greenpeace's original name was the "Don't Make a Wave Committee."

Update on December 23, 2016 by admin

Here below are some of the Ploughshares Fund's responses (edited by Nataliya Gaydey and Katherine McMullen) to Trump and Putin's rhetoric about a new nuclear arms race made yesterday:

TAKE NUCLEAR MISSILES OFF HAIR-TRIGGER ALERT

Developing story: Donald Trump (Tweet) and Vladimir Putin (Statement) both called for strengthening and expanding their already formidable nuclear arsenals today. Watch Joe Cirincione’s take here.

Mr. President, take nuclear missiles off hair-trigger - “It is not too late to stop [President-elect Donald Trump] from impulsively blowing up the planet. With the stroke of a pen, President Barack Obama could take our nuclear missiles off high alert, making sure that President Trump could not launch them rashly. If he doesn’t do this, we will all regret it,” writes Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund for The Huffington Post. “President Obama should take our nuclear missiles off hair-trigger alert before Donald Trump gets control of them.”

--“If the president can do this for parts of the environment, he can take this one simple step to safeguard the entire planet. Scores of leading nuclear scientists wrote to the President asking him to take nuclear missiles off hair-trigger alert… President Trump could still launch nuclear weapons in an emergency, but it would take hours or days. This gives time for consultations, consideration, time to check mistakes and blunt the impulses of the moment. More time doesn’t weaken our national security; it strengthens it.” Read the full story here. http://huff.to/2hatFGC

Sign a petition to reduce risks of nuclear disaster - “On January 20, the military officer carrying the codes for America's nuclear arsenal will follow President Barack Obama to the inaugural platform. When he leaves, the officer will follow President Donald Trump… President Trump will be able to launch, within minutes, one or one thousand nuclear warheads without any vote, any check, or even any serious deliberation. Just one missile could kill millions. Once launched, the missiles could not be recalled.” Sign the Ploughshares Fund petition to urge President Barack Obama to take our nuclear missiles off hair-trigger alert and reduce the risk of nuclear catastrophe. http://bit.ly/2hUglVF

Beyond hair-trigger - “It’s not too late [for President Barack Obama] to make a little more progress [on nuclear weapons],” writes Lisbeth Gronlund for Union of Concerned Scientists. “Obama could reduce the hedge stockpile of weapons the US keeps in storage, and the amount of highly-enriched uranium and plutonium that the US keeps in case it wants to build even more weapons. It’s surprising that he hasn’t already taken these incremental steps. But their incremental nature also means that the Trump administration is unlikely to object… By cutting the hedge and declaring more fissile material excess, Obama would go a little further in fulfilling the promise he made in 2009.” Read full story here. http://bit.ly/2hYXBqv

Senator Markey: Trump Is Wrong About Expanding U.S. Nuclear Capabilities, Will Make World a More Dangerous Place

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA)U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey (Democrat-Massachusetts, pictured left) has called on President-elect Donald J. Trump to commit to reducing bloated U.S. nuclear weapons spending and avoid new nuclear arms race with Russia.

See Markey's press release.

See Markey's letter to Trump.

Last week, Senators Markey and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sent a letter to Mr. Donald Trump calling on him to strengthen our system of alliances, including NATO and the U.S.-Japan Mutual Security Treaty, and long-standing nuclear nonproliferation policies. (emphasis added)

BBC: "Donald Trump: US must greatly expand nuclear weapons"

Trump's alarming rhetoric regarding nuclear weapons didn't end on Election Day.

The BBC has just reported, in an article headlined "Donald Trump: U.S. Must Greatly Expand Nuclear Weapons," that the President-elect Tweeted on the morning of Dec. 22:

"The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes".

The BBC reported that Trump's Tweet came "hours after President Vladimir Putin said Russia needs to bolster its military nuclear potential."

Politico has also reported on these developments. Its article includes mention of Trump's call, during the campaign, for Japan, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea to be allowed to develop their own nuclear weapons arsenals.

Politico's coverage included the reported language from Putin:

Earlier Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on his country to "strenghten" its nuclear forces.

"We need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces, especially with missile complexes that can reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defense systems," he said, according to multiple news reports.

The BBC's coverage included this figure:

The US has 7,100 nuclear weapons and Russia has 7,300, according to the US nonpartisan Arms Control Association.

This accounts for the vast majority of nuclear weapons in the world. Quoted in a Huffington Post article, former U.S. Rep. John Tierney (D-MA), executive director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, put it this way:

“Russia and the U.S. already own over 93 percent of the world’s nuclear arsenal ― more than enough to deter the other and destroy humanity. This is a time for both Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to come to their senses. Billions of lives are at stake.”

Many hundreds or even thousands of those nuclear weapons in the U.S. and Russian arsenals remain on hair-trigger alert, 25 years after the Soviet Union ceased to exist.

The Washington Post's coverage of these developments includes this:

Trump’s suggestion would reverse a long-standing policy under both Republican and Democratic presidents to reduce the number and the role of nuclear weapons, said Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms control Association. Russia and before it, the Soviet Union, hold a similar policy.

Since President George H.W. Bush’s administration, it has been U.S. policy not to build new nuclear warheads. Under President Obama, the policy has been not to pursue warheads with new military capabilities.

It has been estimated that modernizing the aging nuclear arsenal will cost $1 trillion over 20 years. Currently, the United States has just under 5,000 warheads in its active arsenal, and more than 1,550 deployed strategic warheads.

“If Donald Trump is concerned about the rising costs of the F-35, he will be shocked by the skyrocketing costs of the current plan to modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal,” Kimball said. “Trump and his people need to explain the basis of his cryptic tweet. What does he mean by expand, and at what cost?”

The Washington Post has run a second article, entitled "Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agree: Let's revive the nuclear arms race."

(See Beyond Nuclear's commentary and analysis of the Trump Transition Team's emerging nuclear weapons policies -- as well as its energy, climate, etc. policies -- in light of a leaked 72-item questionnaire it sent to the U.S. Department of Energy.) 

For some hopeful and welcome relief from Putin's and Trump's fearful and fearsome proposals, check out this moving Counterpunch article by John LaForge of Nukewatch Wisconsin, "In Sentencing Radical Pacifists, Judge Miles Lord Assailed 'Worship of the Bomb.'"

Update on December 22, 2016 by admin

The New York Times has also reported on this story, with an article entitled "Trump Says U.S. Should 'Expand Its Nuclear Capability'," and an interactive feature entitled "Trump's Nuclear Weapons Tweet, Translated and Explained."