Congress funds recklessly provocative “low-yield” nuclear weapons that make it easier to start an all-out nuclear war!

Since the 1940s the nuclear weapons industry and nuclear war-fighting strategies have relied on HIDING INFORMATION from the public and actually DECEIVING us about the dangerous realities.  These abuses have always been BI-PARTISAN.  The crisis continues — and has been escalating recently with bi-partisan support.

The Pentagon has wanted to make it easier to start a nuclear war.  One recent deception is some people’s claim that “low-yield” (Hiroshima-sized) nuclear weapons are a step toward peace.  Actually, they make an all-out nuclear war more likely by creating the illusion that we’re launching merely a “low-yield” nuclear missile.  But these will be placed on Trident nuclear submarines — the same submarines that carry our horribly powerful nuclear warheads — so if an adversary sees a Trident missile coming their way THE ADVERSARY WILL HAVE TO ASSUME THE WORST and launch their biggest nuclear weapons back at the U.S. so their missiles won’t be destroyed in their silos.

 

Just 60 miles north of where I live (Olympia WA), the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action (www.gzcenter.org) has been opposing Trident and all nuclear weapons since the 1970s.  Now their efforts include opposing the new W76-2 nuclear warheads.

Below I’m editing and amplifying some information that Ground Zero provided in December 2019:

On December 11, 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly (377 to 48) and bi-partisanly to approve the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  This military funding bill supports the U.S.’s wars and nuclear weapons and Trump’s new “Space Force” as an additional branch of the U.S. military.

Ground Zero says “Congress has failed the American people!  The most dangerous compromise in the NDAA is allowing deployment of the new low-yield nuclear warhead, known as the W76-2.”

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) has a long history of supporting the U.S.’s dominant foreign policy, but recently he has opposed some excesses in nuclear weapons.  Ground Zero says Congressman Adam Smith, “defended the compromise NDAA against criticism from progressives that Democrats gave up too much in negotiations with the Republican-controlled Senate and White House.”  GZ says “[I]t is massively ironic that earlier this year Smith was a co-sponsor of legislation that would have prevented research, development, production and deployment of the W76-2. There should have been NO compromise on this issue in the NDAA!”

“The Union of Concerned Scientists issued a scathing rebuke [https://www.ucsusa.org/about/news/ndaa-statement-ken-kimmel] of the compromise NDAA: ‘If it passes this annual defense bill, Congress will have failed in its fundamental duty to protect the American people… This bill accelerates the growing nuclear arms race with Russia. It fully funds almost every element of the Trump administration’s trillion-dollar plan to replace the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal with new, more deadly weapons that we do not need, and cannot afford. Most immediately, the bill will allow the Trump administration to quickly deploy the new W76-2 nuclear warhead—a lower yield weapon specifically intended to be more useable in a nuclear conflict. Weapons such as this one make nuclear war more likely and do nothing to enhance our security.’”

Ground Zero invites you:  :f you would like to learn more about the W76-2 “low-yield” Trident warhead, CLICK HERE for our updated FACT SHEET.”  (Both links take you to the same .pdf document.)

Ground Zero and I encourage you to share this information widely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1499 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org