Working toward a saner US nuclear weapons policy

Working toward a saner US nuclear weapons policy 

Letter to Asheville Citizen Times by Bert Crain, MD

1-26-22

On Jan. 3, the P5, the leading nuclear weapon states: the U.S., Russia, China, France and the U.K., issued a joint statement reaffirming Presidents Reagan’s and Gorbachev’s dictum that 'a nuclear war cannot be won and should never be fought.' This is a new and positive development but somehow hypocritical as all these nations are upgrading their weapon systems.

As we celebrated on Jan. 22 the first anniversary of the ratification of the UN TPNW-The Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, President Biden would do well to fulfill his campaign promise to make U.S. defense less dependent on them. The first step would be to join the other P-5 nations with a No First Use Policy. That is a beginning that is sorely needed.