The United States Needs to Show Some Real Leadership

August 7, 2022
Asheville Citizen Times
Bert Crain

One of the most important, if not the most important event, that was greatly under reported took place June 21-23, 2022.

As The States Party to the 2017 United Nations TPNW-The Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons- convened in Vienna, Austria; the U.S. and the other nuclear weapon states were notable only by their absence. The 122 nations that have signed the treaty including 65 nations that have ratified it have had enough of the nuclear weapon states not honoring their obligations under the 1970 NPT-The Nonproliferation Treaty- to negotiate and begin the path to total abolition.

As tens of thousands gathered on The Mall in Washington June 18th at The Poor People’s March for social justice; we should remember that the greatest social injustice would be the use of genocidal nuclear weapons, whether by accident, miscalculation or madness.

We have a lot of problems in our country, no need to list, but if we don’t solve this existential threat hanging over our heads these other problems won’t even matter. The United States should be there leading the way even as Russia threatens our civilization.