AMERICAN LEFT HISTORY

This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager

Thursday, March 21, 2019

Tell Congress to Stand Against the Nuclear Arms Race

Jonathan King, Co-Chair, Mass Peace Action<info@masspeaceaction.org>

3/18/2019 5:56 PM

To Al Johnson

Quitting the INF: A Mistake of Historic Proportion

As this year began, President Trump gave official notification that the US will withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty of 1987, claiming that Russia has violated its terms. Unless things change, the exit from the treaty will take effect on August 4, 2019.

Tell your Representative and Senators to act against a new nuclear arms race!

The INF treaty removed intermediate-range ground-launched nuclear missiles from Europe (which was divided between the U.S. dominated NATO and Russian led Warsaw Pact). Returning these missles will drastically reduce the response time to perceived threats because the short travel time of a missle from Russia (5-10 minutes to Berlin, 15 minutes to London). Trump's plan to re-deploy such weapons, and Putin's likely response, brings back the dangerous instability of nervous fingers on nuclear buttons, especially at a time when having several new nuclear nations increases the possibility of an accidental or mistaken nuclear launch. Ask your Representative and Senators Markey and Warren to act!

The INF treaty between President Reagan and Chairman Gorbychev was the first actually limiting a category of nuclear weapons and is widely credited with ushering in a series of important agreements which considerably reduced the number of nuclear weapons held by Russia and the U.S. in several different categories. It is feared that eliminating the INF might unravel the entire archetecture of arms limitation, unleashing a new, disasterous nuclear arms race. President Trump's recently released budget proposes billions for such a race. We need to reduce, not ramp up this race to oblivion. The stakes are high. For our national security we need to act:

Preserve the INF treaty and work to expand it rather than leave it.
Adopt a policy of No First Use of nuclear weapons. Urge your Representative to join our Senators in endorsing No First Use bills.
Reject spending billions on a new nuclear arms race and return instead to limiting and reducing them.

Take a few minutes to ask your Representative and our Senators to take the lead.