US, Russia ‘Must Unite to Fight Weapons of Mass Destruction’
The United States and Russia must unite to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction rather than drifting into a new Cold War, the authors of a project to secure the former Soviet nuclear arsenal said on Monday.
While acknowledging that Moscow and Washington disagree over missile defense, human rights, democracy and how to handle the Serb province of Kosovo, U.S. Senator Richard Lugar said the two nations had too much at stake to allow the relationship to sour. 
“The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is the number one national security threat facing our countries and the international community,” Lugar, who is the Republican leader on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a reception here.
“The U.S. and Russia should be sending the clear message that we are ready to go anywhere and undertake any conversation in the pursuit of preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” he added.
In 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed, Lugar forged a bipartisan partnership with then Democrat senator Sam Nunn to help Russia and former Soviet nations secure and destroy huge stocks of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
Almost 7,000 nuclear warheads have been deactivated to date.
Lugar said Russia and the United States should use the experience gained during that program to help North Korea dismantle its nuclear weapons, if current six-nation talks about disarming Pyongyang succeed.
Nunn urged the U.S. government to seriously consider President Vladimir Putin’s offer earlier this year to share information from a Russian-run radar station in Azerbaijan to help combat potential hostile missile attacks.
Both men said that much remained to be done to reduce still further the danger of accidental war between U.S. and Russian nuclear forces and to stop other nations or terrorists from acquiring nuclear weapons technology.
“The world is in a race between cooperation and catastrophe,” Nunn said. “It’s a race we must run together with others and which we must win.”
Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited.
While acknowledging that Moscow and Washington disagree over missile defense, human rights, democracy
we have a democracy here?
doesn’t that mean majority rules?
doesn’t that mean corruption in public office is treason?
doesn’t it mean government by, of and for the people?
and what… torture is a human right?
(all at the hands of a pro-life, compassionate conservative, no less)
just because you claim something doesn’t make it so.
wish i were in moscow.
without impeachement, we as americans, cannot claim all the rubbish we like to believe.
turn off the television and write your congressman.
Yeah, fat chance of that happening, what with the “decider” spitting in Putin’s face every chance he gets!
Who has the most WMDs? Why is only the Soviet arsenal to be controlled? Who just gave India the right to be a WMD prolifewrator?
This has got to be a sick joke. The premise begs belief.
If the USA wants to “fight WMDs” - let it begin by destroying it’s own arsenal, and stopping it’s own development of more wmds. The world doesn’t need the biggest bully, killer, & lawbreaker on the globe to pretend to enforce the law. The world needs justice & peace.
—————–
“Thousands of nuclear warheads that are stockpiled in various locations coupled with programs to further develop these inhuman weapons have created a new atmosphere of repression and the rule of the machines of war, threatening the international community and even the citizens of the countries that possess them.
“Ironically, those who have actually used nuclear weapons, continue to produce, stockpile and extensively test such weapons, have used depleted uranium bombs and bullets against tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Kuwaitis, and even their own soldiers and those of their allies, afflicting them with incurable diseases, blatantly violate their obligations under the NPT, have refrained from signing the CTBT and have armed the Zionist occupation regime with WMDs…”
“Some powers proudly announce their production of second and third generation nuclear weapons. What do they need these weapons for? Is the development and stockpiling of these deadly weapons designed to promote peace and democracy? Or are these weapons, in fact, instruments of coercion and threat against other peoples and governments? How long should the people of the world live with the nightmare of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons? To what length can powers producing and possessing these weapons go? How can they be held accountable before the international community? And, are the inhabitants of these countries content with waste resulting from the use of their wealth and resources for the production of destructive arsenals? Is it not possible to rely on justice, ethics and wisdom instead of on instruments of death? Aren’t wisdom and justice more compatible with peace and tranquility than nuclear, chemical and biological weapons?”
Iran’s President Ahmadinejad at the UN
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iran/2006/iran-060920-irna02.htm
More mind-warping propaganda from the sewer of the MSM. If the US was going to “fight weapons of mass destruction,” it would have to fight itself. Maybe the US should nuke itself — starting with Washington DC. (Hopefully when Congress is in session & everyone’s home at the White House & Pentagon.)
As curmudgeon 99 notes, look at this sentence: “…Lugar forged a bipartisan partnership with then Democrat senator Sam Nunn to help Russia and former Soviet nations secure and destroy huge stocks of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.” Note that it’s only the Russians that have to disarm.
A final laugh in this disgusting piece of sh*t is the quote from Lugar that begins, “While acknowledging that Moscow and Washington disagree over missile defense, human rights, democracy …”
– I’m sorry, but the days are OVER where any American assh*le politician has the slightest right to be lecturing ANYONE about “democracy or human rights.”
Without war where would the economy of the United States be?
I think wrestling or Ultimate fighting is on, so….
Peace to you and yours.
The U.S. and Russia must unite to fight WMDs?
UHhhhhhh, what about India, Pakastan, Iran, Isreal, China, Korea, Bolivia, Peru, Mexico, Australia, Great Britian, The Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Italy, Germany, France and any others, who now use DU in weapons. DU is the ultimate in WMDs. (That fact is un-arguable)!
US, Russia ‘must unite to fight weapons of mass destruction’.
It’s like the weapons of mass destruction have morphed into beings of their own,
“we must unite! the WMD’s have gotten loose and are running amock!
RE: RichM August 28th, 2007 1:17 pm
“More mind-warping propaganda from the sewer of the MSM”….
and
“…– I’m sorry, but the days are OVER where any American assh*le politician has the slightest right to be lecturing ANYONE about “democracy or human rights.”
You hit the nail squarely on the head twice (or more) in your post, Rich.
Thankyou also, MaxheMust August 28th, 2007 1:13 pm , for pointing out the use of DU is a WMD. No loud bang or flash, as with a nuclear explosion, but much more insidious, pervasive, life threatening, and long lasting. If I had a goal of de-populating the world by two billion people, which I’ve seen stated in an article I read somewhere as on someone’s agenda, this WMD would surely accomplish the task (or more, possibly even 6-7 billion which means literally EVERYONE on the planet). The only problem is that this is a guard dog that turns around and bites its owner. No living thing is immune to this WMD, I repeat, NO LIVING THING is immune to this stuff, and this means down to the microbial level. Worse yet, it doesn’t stay where it is put, a very unruly dog indeed.
This is the first non-proliferation agreement that should be enacted for sure!!!
“All the bombs are in the hands of terrorists”
— Crazy Bird
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
thank your pro-life, compassionate conservative president, boys and girls.
Good point about DU.
Read yesterdays article, August 27, in counterpunch.com by Russell D. Hoffman called “My favorite Scientist”, about the life work of Dr John Gofman, who repeatedly warned about the devastating effects of even the tiniest of radioactive particles on bio systems. Very disturbing, and it seems so few are listening.
From ‘The Guardian’
- - -
The US president - speaking hours after the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadenijad, said his regime was ready to fill the power vacuum in Iraq - accused the Tehran government not only of being behind Shia insurgents in Iraq but also of supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Mr Bush said Iran’s nuclear programme would cast the Middle East “under a shadow of nuclear holocaust” and said the regime was the “the world’s leading supporter of terrorism”.
“I will take all actions necessary to protect our troops,” he said. “I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran’s murderous activities.”
- - -
In all seriousness to those Americans who maintain firearms in their homes. (90% according to recent surveys) Considering everything this cabal has done, domestically and internationally and the horrific escalation they are about to commit (nuclear), WHY ARE THEY STILL BREATHING?!!!
THIS IS YOUR PROBLEM TO SOLVE!!! DO IT!!!
Why the hell should we in the world at large pay a horrible price like this because you can’t get off the damn couch?!
860 tonnes of Depleted Uranium scatered throughout IRAQ in Gulf War 1 by US military….
Approx 1060 tonnes of Depleted Uranium scattered throughout IRAQ in Gulf War 2 by US military….
U.S. Senator Richard Lugar ought to look in the Mirror….This low grade Nooocleear War conducted by US Military-Industrial Complex is illegal, scandalous, immoral and bloody evil….
MaxheMust, stinger_28 - I don’t understand, are you in favor of a nuclear Iran, and a new nuclear arms race in the middle east?
I think the international community should focus on disarming the existing players, and not support adding new players to the nuclear club.
vets, you watch Fox News don’t you?
I’ll make this simple enough for you.
If Iran wanted to be a nuclear nation, they could drop a very small amount of their treasury and have several hundred nuclear capable truck mounted Nodong 2 or 3 missile systems flown, driven or shipped into the country in a month or less. They could have done this at any point in the last 20 years or so.
The only nation threatening a nuclear arms race is your own. (Yes, it’s obvious where you’re writing from.
End.
And we are going to pre-emptively use ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons against Iran to prevent nuclear war.
Wonderland
Curmudgeon,
Strategically we are already using the tactical nuclear weapon of mass destruction of DU against in our GWOT (Global War OF Terror) so why should Iran be any different than Iraq, Afghanistan, or Kosovo for that matter?
There is too much corporate money to be made in a Hot or Cold War for our corporate and financial leaders to lose.
Iran has every right to have nuclear power. They are open about it and said they do not want a bomb, only power.
But then there’s that little terrorist country that’s causing all the trouble in the mideast that HAS nuke’s, well what can I say. They cannot stand the truth.
stinger_28 rightly slaps the gauntlet in US citizens’ faces, “Why the hell should we in the world at large pay a horrible price like this because you can’t get off the damn couch?!”
It’s most difficult to engage in struggle to overthrow entrenched power without the support of the great majority, which is why the Iraqis and Afghanis are winning in the sense that they haven’t been totally subjugated. In the USA, very few even know the country’s true history of empire building and expansive drive for global imperial domination since the 1890s. I know of no university or college offering a course on the History of the US Empire, except in the very limited, euphemistic studies in US Foreign Policy. The result is there’s no context for the citizen to relate to resistent actions. OTOH, if say the Chinese invaded, there would easily be broad support for an insurgency to oust the invaders, because the context is there for all to see. In my short career as a community college instuctor, I tried to provide just such a context when teaching Economics, Polisci, US and World History; but I only reached 1,000 students at most and doubt if more than a handful sought to further their knowledge of the US Empire. This website helps to further educate, but the posted comments show how rampant the ignorance of US history is by its citizens. So, some of us are more than ready to “get off the damn couch”; but without local community support and wider societal knowledge of the overall historical context, we would be used like so-many 1984 “Goldstiens” by the current power apparat and do great damage to the current effort to use Constitutional law and order mechanisms to stem our descent into fascism. A great victory was won by US corporations’ ability to enslave US Citizens through “work, drive, and consume” dogma. The gains from this victory are being very slowly eroded, and more people are beginning to understand the contextual connections.
It would be of great assistance if the world’s people would pressure their respective governments to treat the USA as Nazi Germany, for it’s pretty clear that we in the USA aren’t going to be able to break our Empire’s back without allies around the world seeking the same humanitarian outcome.
Does anybody still believe that people of the ilk of Bush Putin, Peng et. al. will be able avoid Armageddon? Even if these gentlemen some how postpone it, the people who will replace them will be no better
Moscow, the EU, and Peking must join forces to contain the US fascist neo con. imperialist, war mongering state.