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War torn buildings blight the skyline as children play in a park on May 26, 2022 in Borodianka Ukraine. (Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Don't Just Worry About Nuclear War--Do Something to Help Prevent It
The U.S. government should do everything in its power to lessen the chances of global nuclear annihilation.
Oct 11, 2022
This is an emergency.
Right now, we're closer to a cataclysmic nuclear war than at any other time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. One assessment after another has said the current situation is even more dangerous.
Yet few members of Congress are advocating for any steps that the U.S. government could take to decrease the dangers of a nuclear conflagration. The silences and muted statements on Capitol Hill are evading the reality of what's hanging in the balance--the destruction of almost all human life on Earth. "The end of civilization."
Constituent passivity is helping elected officials to sleepwalk toward unfathomable catastrophe for all of humanity. If senators and representatives are to be roused out of their timid refusal to urgently address--and work to reduce--the present high risks of nuclear war, they need to be confronted. Nonviolently and emphatically.
The silences and muted statements on Capitol Hill are evading the reality of what's hanging in the balance--the destruction of almost all human life on Earth.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has made thinly veiled, extremely reckless statements about possibly using nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war. At the same time, some of the U.S. government's policies make nuclear war more likely. Changing them is imperative.
For the last few months, I've been working with people in many states who aren't just worried about the spiking dangers of nuclear war--they're also determined to take action to help prevent it. That resolve has resulted in organizing more than 35 picket lines that will happen on Friday, October 14, at local offices of Senate and House members around the country. (If you want to organize such picketing in your area, go here.)
What could the U.S. government do to lessen the chances of global nuclear annihilation? The Defuse Nuclear War campaign, which is coordinating those picket lines, has identified key needed actions. Such as:
Rejoin nuclear-weapons treaties the U.S. has pulled out of
President George W. Bush withdrew the United States from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2002. Under Donald Trump, the U.S. withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019. Both pacts significantly reduced the chances of nuclear war.
Take U.S. nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert.
Four hundred intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are armed and ready for launch from underground silos in five states. Because they're land-based, those missiles are vulnerable to attack and thus are on hair-trigger alert--allowing only minutes to determine whether indications of an incoming attack are real or a false alarm.
End the policy of "first use."
Like Russia, the United States has refused to pledge not to be the first to use nuclear weapons.
Support congressional action to avert nuclear war.
In the House, H.Res. 1185 includes a call for the United States to "lead a global effort to prevent nuclear war."
An overarching need is for senators and representatives to insist that U.S. participation in nuclear brinkmanship is unacceptable. As our Defuse Nuclear War team says, "Grassroots activism will be essential to pressure members of Congress to publicly acknowledge the dangers of nuclear war and strongly advocate specific steps for reducing them."
Is that really too much to ask? Or even demand?
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 |
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Norman Solomon
Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. The paperback edition of his latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, includes an afterword about the Gaza war.
This is an emergency.
Right now, we're closer to a cataclysmic nuclear war than at any other time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. One assessment after another has said the current situation is even more dangerous.
Yet few members of Congress are advocating for any steps that the U.S. government could take to decrease the dangers of a nuclear conflagration. The silences and muted statements on Capitol Hill are evading the reality of what's hanging in the balance--the destruction of almost all human life on Earth. "The end of civilization."
Constituent passivity is helping elected officials to sleepwalk toward unfathomable catastrophe for all of humanity. If senators and representatives are to be roused out of their timid refusal to urgently address--and work to reduce--the present high risks of nuclear war, they need to be confronted. Nonviolently and emphatically.
The silences and muted statements on Capitol Hill are evading the reality of what's hanging in the balance--the destruction of almost all human life on Earth.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has made thinly veiled, extremely reckless statements about possibly using nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war. At the same time, some of the U.S. government's policies make nuclear war more likely. Changing them is imperative.
For the last few months, I've been working with people in many states who aren't just worried about the spiking dangers of nuclear war--they're also determined to take action to help prevent it. That resolve has resulted in organizing more than 35 picket lines that will happen on Friday, October 14, at local offices of Senate and House members around the country. (If you want to organize such picketing in your area, go here.)
What could the U.S. government do to lessen the chances of global nuclear annihilation? The Defuse Nuclear War campaign, which is coordinating those picket lines, has identified key needed actions. Such as:
Rejoin nuclear-weapons treaties the U.S. has pulled out of
President George W. Bush withdrew the United States from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2002. Under Donald Trump, the U.S. withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019. Both pacts significantly reduced the chances of nuclear war.
Take U.S. nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert.
Four hundred intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are armed and ready for launch from underground silos in five states. Because they're land-based, those missiles are vulnerable to attack and thus are on hair-trigger alert--allowing only minutes to determine whether indications of an incoming attack are real or a false alarm.
End the policy of "first use."
Like Russia, the United States has refused to pledge not to be the first to use nuclear weapons.
Support congressional action to avert nuclear war.
In the House, H.Res. 1185 includes a call for the United States to "lead a global effort to prevent nuclear war."
An overarching need is for senators and representatives to insist that U.S. participation in nuclear brinkmanship is unacceptable. As our Defuse Nuclear War team says, "Grassroots activism will be essential to pressure members of Congress to publicly acknowledge the dangers of nuclear war and strongly advocate specific steps for reducing them."
Is that really too much to ask? Or even demand?
Norman Solomon
Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. The paperback edition of his latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, includes an afterword about the Gaza war.
This is an emergency.
Right now, we're closer to a cataclysmic nuclear war than at any other time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. One assessment after another has said the current situation is even more dangerous.
Yet few members of Congress are advocating for any steps that the U.S. government could take to decrease the dangers of a nuclear conflagration. The silences and muted statements on Capitol Hill are evading the reality of what's hanging in the balance--the destruction of almost all human life on Earth. "The end of civilization."
Constituent passivity is helping elected officials to sleepwalk toward unfathomable catastrophe for all of humanity. If senators and representatives are to be roused out of their timid refusal to urgently address--and work to reduce--the present high risks of nuclear war, they need to be confronted. Nonviolently and emphatically.
The silences and muted statements on Capitol Hill are evading the reality of what's hanging in the balance--the destruction of almost all human life on Earth.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has made thinly veiled, extremely reckless statements about possibly using nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war. At the same time, some of the U.S. government's policies make nuclear war more likely. Changing them is imperative.
For the last few months, I've been working with people in many states who aren't just worried about the spiking dangers of nuclear war--they're also determined to take action to help prevent it. That resolve has resulted in organizing more than 35 picket lines that will happen on Friday, October 14, at local offices of Senate and House members around the country. (If you want to organize such picketing in your area, go here.)
What could the U.S. government do to lessen the chances of global nuclear annihilation? The Defuse Nuclear War campaign, which is coordinating those picket lines, has identified key needed actions. Such as:
Rejoin nuclear-weapons treaties the U.S. has pulled out of
President George W. Bush withdrew the United States from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2002. Under Donald Trump, the U.S. withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019. Both pacts significantly reduced the chances of nuclear war.
Take U.S. nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert.
Four hundred intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are armed and ready for launch from underground silos in five states. Because they're land-based, those missiles are vulnerable to attack and thus are on hair-trigger alert--allowing only minutes to determine whether indications of an incoming attack are real or a false alarm.
End the policy of "first use."
Like Russia, the United States has refused to pledge not to be the first to use nuclear weapons.
Support congressional action to avert nuclear war.
In the House, H.Res. 1185 includes a call for the United States to "lead a global effort to prevent nuclear war."
An overarching need is for senators and representatives to insist that U.S. participation in nuclear brinkmanship is unacceptable. As our Defuse Nuclear War team says, "Grassroots activism will be essential to pressure members of Congress to publicly acknowledge the dangers of nuclear war and strongly advocate specific steps for reducing them."
Is that really too much to ask? Or even demand?
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