The world is still alarmed in mid-October 2020 that Trump seems committed to letting the last remaining treaty with Russia limiting nuclear weapons to EXPIRE in 2021. This would lead to a TOTALLY UNCONSTRAINED NUCLEAR ARMS RACE.
Trump’s reckless promotion of nuclear weapons has already provoked Russia and China to start massive building of their own nuclear weapons. We must build a huge grassroots movement to nonviolently force Trump to extend the “New START” treaty in its current form without bogging it down with complicating new complications.
Trump lies to us about EVERYTHING. Trump is PRETENDING to want peace by saying he wants to include China. But this is just a gimmick to destroy the New START treaty by — instead of simply extending it, as Russia wants — bogging everybody down by adding China as a bogeyman. Actually, while the U.S. and Russia each has thousands of nuclear weapons, China has only a few hundred. China has called Trump’s bluff and stated that it would negotiate with the U.S. and Russia when those two nations de-escalate down to China’s low number.
This is part of Trump’s attempts to demonize China regarding international trade and other issues.
A great many peace organizations are calling for Trump to simply renew New START in its present form, as Russia has been urging for a long time.
See this October 15 information from the Arms Control Association. It includes articles from previous months, so you can clearly understand the problem — and why we demand the solution of renewing New START in its current form:
https://www.armscontrol.org/blogs/us-russian-nuclear-arms-control-watch
On September 29, 2020, Global Zero (www.globalzero.org) issued this statement:
News broke yesterday that the Trump administration asked the military to figure out how quickly it can pull nuclear weapons out of storage and load them onto bombers and submarines if New START, the last arms control treaty left between the United States and Russia, expires in February 2021.
The way things are going, it’s not a question of “if,” but “when” — unless we turn up the heat and demand New START be preserved.
New START can be extended with a simple executive agreement between the U.S. and Russia — literally with the stroke of a pen — and Russia has already offered an immediate extension without any conditions. But the Trump administration continues to make unreasonable demands that many experts believe are designed to tank the negotiations — and the treaty along with it. …
The New START agreement continues decades of U.S.-Russia cooperation to keep a lid on nuclear arsenals by imposing equal limits on both nations. The treaty also requires rigorous on-site inspections of weapons systems so neither side cheats. That’s why the overwhelming majority of nuclear security experts and leaders across the political spectrum agree that keeping this treaty in effect is a no-brainer.
Instead of taking this easy diplomatic win or engaging in genuine dialogue, the U.S. approach has been heavy on unrealistic demands and overt threats, even going so far as to consider resuming explosive nuclear testing as “negotiating leverage.”
Physicians for Social Responsibility (www.psr.org) has been pushing hard to renew New START. See their information from June 26, 2020:
For background, see these two previous posts:
URGENT and CRUCIAL: Do not let Trump trash the New START treaty!!! We must limit nuclear weapons!!!
Act now! Support “New START” treaty to prevent nuclear war with Russia
http://parallaxperspectives.org/act-now-support-new-start-treaty-to-prevent-nuclear-war-with-russia
