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Right Now, Trump Can Start a Nuclear War
Without so much as a vote by Congress, our whole planet could be destroyed.
Mar 19, 2017
Right now, Donald Trump could start a nuclear war on a whim, and no one could stop him.
Under any circumstances, the prospect of nuclear war is terrifying, the deadly consequences irreversible. Yet with a single order, the president -- any president -- could effectively declare a nuclear war that would wipe out entire nations, including our own.
More worrying still, our current president has shown an alarming willingness to engage in aggression instead of diplomacy -- particularly towards nations like Iran and China, as well as countries whose citizens have now been banned from traveling to the U.S. under an overbroad, dog-whistle executive order.
Trump has almost gleefully exercised his right to threaten nuclear war.
He made boastful remarks about nuclear might throughout his campaign. And just recently, he called for a new push to put America at the "top of the pack" when it comes to nuclear weapons capability (as though we weren't already).
Going against decades of precedent, not to mention hard-won diplomatic treaties reached with countries like Russia and Iran, Trump has enthusiastically declared that we should expand, not reduce, our nuclear arsenal.
Already, just a tiny amount of our nuclear stockpile would be enough to blow up the world several times over. We'd probably even have enough left over to decimate most of the seven Earth-like planets in the Trappist-1 solar system that NASA recently discovered.
Surely the horrors at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the devastation after the nuclear power plant leak at Fukushima, should warn us against the danger of nuclear fallout. The disaster at Three Mile Island wasn't exactly a small lab accident, either.
It's almost impossible to comprehend millions of people being obliterated from the face of the earth simultaneously, in the blink of an eye. Especially at the whim of just one American who happens to have access to a certain red button.
That's why Representative Ted Lieu and Senator Ed Markey have introduced legislation prohibiting the sitting president from unilaterally declaring nuclear war without a prior act of Congress. They call it the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017.
"Nuclear war poses the gravest risk to human survival," Markey warned in a joint statement introducing this legislation. Unfortunately, Trump insists on "maintaining the option of using nuclear weapons first in a conflict."
"In a crisis with another nuclear-armed country," the senator went on to explain, "this policy drastically increases the risk of unintended nuclear escalation."
As so many people have said, we only have one planet. Billions of people live here -- and nowhere else in the universe.
If we take our nation's responsibility as a leader of the free world seriously, it's our duty to protect people from the horrors of war, famine, poverty, genocide, and nuclear fallout. But there will be no place to go for any survivors of a nuclear disaster.
I don't know about you, but I don't even watch post-apocalyptic TV shows. I certainly don't want to find myself living in the middle of one.
No one person on this planet should be able to make a decision that will send millions of people instantaneously to their deaths. That's genocide.
Killing off our entire planet? That's just inhuman.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
This column was distributed by OtherWords.
Right now, Donald Trump could start a nuclear war on a whim, and no one could stop him.
Under any circumstances, the prospect of nuclear war is terrifying, the deadly consequences irreversible. Yet with a single order, the president -- any president -- could effectively declare a nuclear war that would wipe out entire nations, including our own.
More worrying still, our current president has shown an alarming willingness to engage in aggression instead of diplomacy -- particularly towards nations like Iran and China, as well as countries whose citizens have now been banned from traveling to the U.S. under an overbroad, dog-whistle executive order.
Trump has almost gleefully exercised his right to threaten nuclear war.
He made boastful remarks about nuclear might throughout his campaign. And just recently, he called for a new push to put America at the "top of the pack" when it comes to nuclear weapons capability (as though we weren't already).
Going against decades of precedent, not to mention hard-won diplomatic treaties reached with countries like Russia and Iran, Trump has enthusiastically declared that we should expand, not reduce, our nuclear arsenal.
Already, just a tiny amount of our nuclear stockpile would be enough to blow up the world several times over. We'd probably even have enough left over to decimate most of the seven Earth-like planets in the Trappist-1 solar system that NASA recently discovered.
Surely the horrors at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the devastation after the nuclear power plant leak at Fukushima, should warn us against the danger of nuclear fallout. The disaster at Three Mile Island wasn't exactly a small lab accident, either.
It's almost impossible to comprehend millions of people being obliterated from the face of the earth simultaneously, in the blink of an eye. Especially at the whim of just one American who happens to have access to a certain red button.
That's why Representative Ted Lieu and Senator Ed Markey have introduced legislation prohibiting the sitting president from unilaterally declaring nuclear war without a prior act of Congress. They call it the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017.
"Nuclear war poses the gravest risk to human survival," Markey warned in a joint statement introducing this legislation. Unfortunately, Trump insists on "maintaining the option of using nuclear weapons first in a conflict."
"In a crisis with another nuclear-armed country," the senator went on to explain, "this policy drastically increases the risk of unintended nuclear escalation."
As so many people have said, we only have one planet. Billions of people live here -- and nowhere else in the universe.
If we take our nation's responsibility as a leader of the free world seriously, it's our duty to protect people from the horrors of war, famine, poverty, genocide, and nuclear fallout. But there will be no place to go for any survivors of a nuclear disaster.
I don't know about you, but I don't even watch post-apocalyptic TV shows. I certainly don't want to find myself living in the middle of one.
No one person on this planet should be able to make a decision that will send millions of people instantaneously to their deaths. That's genocide.
Killing off our entire planet? That's just inhuman.
Right now, Donald Trump could start a nuclear war on a whim, and no one could stop him.
Under any circumstances, the prospect of nuclear war is terrifying, the deadly consequences irreversible. Yet with a single order, the president -- any president -- could effectively declare a nuclear war that would wipe out entire nations, including our own.
More worrying still, our current president has shown an alarming willingness to engage in aggression instead of diplomacy -- particularly towards nations like Iran and China, as well as countries whose citizens have now been banned from traveling to the U.S. under an overbroad, dog-whistle executive order.
Trump has almost gleefully exercised his right to threaten nuclear war.
He made boastful remarks about nuclear might throughout his campaign. And just recently, he called for a new push to put America at the "top of the pack" when it comes to nuclear weapons capability (as though we weren't already).
Going against decades of precedent, not to mention hard-won diplomatic treaties reached with countries like Russia and Iran, Trump has enthusiastically declared that we should expand, not reduce, our nuclear arsenal.
Already, just a tiny amount of our nuclear stockpile would be enough to blow up the world several times over. We'd probably even have enough left over to decimate most of the seven Earth-like planets in the Trappist-1 solar system that NASA recently discovered.
Surely the horrors at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the devastation after the nuclear power plant leak at Fukushima, should warn us against the danger of nuclear fallout. The disaster at Three Mile Island wasn't exactly a small lab accident, either.
It's almost impossible to comprehend millions of people being obliterated from the face of the earth simultaneously, in the blink of an eye. Especially at the whim of just one American who happens to have access to a certain red button.
That's why Representative Ted Lieu and Senator Ed Markey have introduced legislation prohibiting the sitting president from unilaterally declaring nuclear war without a prior act of Congress. They call it the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017.
"Nuclear war poses the gravest risk to human survival," Markey warned in a joint statement introducing this legislation. Unfortunately, Trump insists on "maintaining the option of using nuclear weapons first in a conflict."
"In a crisis with another nuclear-armed country," the senator went on to explain, "this policy drastically increases the risk of unintended nuclear escalation."
As so many people have said, we only have one planet. Billions of people live here -- and nowhere else in the universe.
If we take our nation's responsibility as a leader of the free world seriously, it's our duty to protect people from the horrors of war, famine, poverty, genocide, and nuclear fallout. But there will be no place to go for any survivors of a nuclear disaster.
I don't know about you, but I don't even watch post-apocalyptic TV shows. I certainly don't want to find myself living in the middle of one.
No one person on this planet should be able to make a decision that will send millions of people instantaneously to their deaths. That's genocide.
Killing off our entire planet? That's just inhuman.
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