URGENT
ACTION: PREVENT NEW NUCLEAR WEAPONS
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Response Form
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Sample
Letter on New Nuclear Weapons
Model
Letter-to-the-Editor
Please
rewrite or edit this model letter as you see fit. The
letter and the background information can be quickly
transformed into an op-ed.
As soon as it is printed in your newspapers, be sure
to fax a copy to your Congressional delegation and to
WiLL's Washington Office at (202) 544-7612.
Dear
Editor:
The Bush Administration and Congressional hawks want
to develop two new types of nuclear weapons. They have
proposed repealing a decade-old prohibition on developing
low-yield nuclear weapons and building a nuclear version
of the bunker-buster weapon. Work on new nuclear weapons
sends the wrong message to a world we are trying to
convince not to engage in the proliferation of nuclear
weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.
If we are truly interested in nuclear nonproliferation
and in downsizing our own nuclear stockpile, the last
thing we should be doing is developing new weapons.
We have no higher national security goal than to do
everything possible to discourage the spread of nuclear
weapons and to delegitimize their role. Smaller nuclear
weapons could be considered usable nuclear weapons.
Using them would break a taboo that has been in place
since the use of nuclear weapons in 1945 during World
War II. We cannot let the nuclear genie out of the bottle
again.
Taxpayers in the U.S. will pay $15.7 billion for nuclear
weapons in FY04. For the same amount of money, we could
invest in 6,716,432 children receiving health care or
2,351,628 housing vouchers or 297,158 elementary school
teachers or 69,660 firetrucks. We should be decreasing
our dependence on nuclear weapons rather than developing
new generations of them.
I/we urge Representative ___/Senator ___ to oppose development
of new nuclear weapons. The 1993 prohibition on low-yield
nuclear weapons should remain in place and we should
not spend money on a nuclear bunker-buster weapon.
Sincerely,
Your Name
Women Legislators' Lobby (WiLL)
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