General asks cut in nuclear stockpile — what are we waiting for?

by Diane Aronson, former executive director of WAND

Published: August 10, 2012 by The Boston Globe

Thirty years ago I joined a band of women to work toward freezing and reversing the buildup of nuclear weapons, as the first executive director of an organization now called Women’s Action for New Directions. As mothers, we were concerned about the safety and future for our children. With current unrest in the world, awareness is as critical as the days during the Cold War and, today, we add concern for our grandchildren.

I commend General Norton A. Schwartz for speaking with sound reason and logic as outlined in the article “ US general asks cut in nuclear stockpile” (Page A1, Aug. 6). One would think that if military officials are in favor of reducing our bloated and old nuclear weapons stockpile, leaders in Congress would act. Yet Republicans, such as Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte, continue to claim that reducing this useless reserve would harm our national security and cost the United States jobs.

The United States has more nuclear weapons deployed than any potential foe, and economists have found that investing tax dollars in areas other than the Pentagon creates more jobs. It’s time to listen to military leaders. It’s time to reduce nuclear weapons and wasteful Pentagon spending.

By Michael Carrigan and Susan Cundiff

This month marks the 67th anniversary of the only time nuclear weapons were used in warfare. The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945. An estimated 220,000 men, women and children had died in those two cities by the end of 1945.

We will gather on Monday at Alton Baker Park in Eugene to proclaim “Never again!”

The Hanford Nuclear Site on the banks of the Columbia River in Washington state played a pivotal role in the nuclear race that followed the creation of those weapons. Material for the Nagasaki bomb was made there, and Hanford was the site of the world’s first full-scale plutonium production reactor. Nuclear weapons tests — 2,056 of them — were conducted worldwide. At the peak of the Cold War, there were some 70,000 nuclear weapons.

The number has decreased since the Cold War, but 23,000 nuclear warheads are still intact globally, enough to blow up the planet. The U.S. and Russia possess more than 90 percent, of which about 2,000 are on high alert — meaning they are ready for launch in minutes. This reliance on nuclear arsenals encourages the spread of weapons and increases the possibility of an accidental launch or intentional nuclear attack.

The past 67 years of nuclear weapons production has cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars and required more than five decades of cleanup, and still there will be contamination at Hanford and other sites for hundreds of generations to come.

In December 2010, with support of our military leadership, 71 senators, including Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden from Oregon, voted to ratify the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. New START reduced U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals and established a process for verifying these and future reductions. It is in our country’s best interest to further this nuclear downsizing and to pursue the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons.

As President Obama said in March, “We have more nuclear weapons than we need. I firmly believe that we can ensure the security of the United States and our allies, maintain a strong deterrent against any threat, and still pursue further reductions in our nuclear arsenal.”

Other security experts agree. In April, Gen. James Cartwright, former vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and commander of U.S. nuclear forces under President George W. Bush, called for an 80 percent reduction in U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals.

And Merkley, a former national security analyst at the Pentagon, says the START treaty “continues a long history of bipartisan support for nuclear arms control dating back to Presidents John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, demonstrating that safety and security is best achieved by reducing stockpiles of nuclear weapons, not by building them up.”

While these weapons are not making us more secure, they cost some $30 billion a year to maintain. With plans to spend more than $180 billion over the next decade, the federal budget significantly increases funding for nuclear weapons activities while cutting funding for dismantlement and environmental cleanup. For the same amount of money that Oregon taxpayers will shell out for nuclear weapons programs, we could fund 2,067 schoolteachers or cover the cost of medical care for 21,574 military veterans for one year.

Oregonians have a long history working to abolish nuclear weapons. In the 1980s and ’90s, hundreds of Oregon activists traveled to the test site in Nevada calling for an end to nuclear weapons testing. Their activism led the nation and former Sen. Mark Hatfield and Rep. Mike Kopetski to pass a moratorium in Congress on nuclear weapons testing in the U.S.

Building on that success, we call on the U.S. Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to permanently end nuclear testing worldwide. Our nation should lead by example, first by urging further reciprocal Russian reductions and then by engaging other nuclear nations to make reductions. Efforts must lead to the eventual elimination of all nuclear weapons.

During its operations, Hanford has released significant amounts of radioactive materials into the air and the Columbia River, threatening human health and our Northwest ecosystems. This site, the most contaminated in the Western Hemisphere, continues to spread contamination.

We call on Congress and the Obama administration to redirect funding from nuclear weapons development to cleanup efforts at Hanford so we can protect our air, the Columbia River and the health of future generations. Let this be our legacy instead of the continued insanity of nuclear weapons development.

Michael Carrigan is peace organizer for the Community Alliance of Lane County. Susan Cundiff serves on the national board of Women’s Action for New Directions. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemoration will begin with a potluck at 6:30 p.m. and a program at 7:30 p.m. on Monday at Alton Baker Park in Eugene.