Writing on OpEdNews.com, Peace Action's Kevin Martin and Scoville Fellow, Lisa Putkey, make the case for remobilizing the nuclear disarmament movement in the face of the White House decision to pour billions of dollars into the U.S. nuclear weapons conference. The full article is on OpEdNews but below is an important excerpt:
"In response to Obama's agenda for a nuclear-free world, many in Congress seek to condition further reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal on funding for new nuclear warhead production. On December 15, 2009, 40 Republican Senators and one Independent sent a letter to President Obama stating, ""we don't believe further reductions [in our nuclear arsenal] can be in the national security interest of the U.S. in the absence of a significant program to modernize our nuclear deterrent." By "modernization" they mean increased funding to our nuclear arsenal to make sure it continues to be the best of the best. The nuclear weapons laboratories, contractors and the nuclear bureaucracies in the Pentagon and Energy Department where the nearly $60 billion in annual funding for nuclear weapons resides all have a vested interest in keeping the nuclear weapons policy status-quo and are addicted to new toys and capital-intensive projects."