Ruth Zalph: Don’t build more nukes

Seventy-one years ago, the world witnessed the destructive power of nuclear weapons in the United States’ bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More than 140,000 women, men and children were incinerated alive.

While our mainstream media remain mum, former Secretary of Defense William Perry has warned that “the likelihood of a nuclear catastrophe today is greater than it was during the height of the Cold War, and the public is blissfully unaware of that.”

Today, more than 16,000 nuclear weapons stand ready in the U.S., England, Russia, China, France, Pakistan, Israel, India and North Korea. As the only country ever to have used atomic bombs, the U.S must commit to eliminating the world’s deadliest weapons.

Instead, our Nuclear Security Administration plans to build a processing facility to “modernize” our stockpile, rather than dismantle retired nuclear weapons and cleaning up what the Department of Energy’s Inspector General calls “an ever-increasing risk to workers and the public.”

Since the greatest threats to humankind are nuclear war and global warming, we must demand that Congress reject the budgeted $575 million start-up funding while need and mission are reassessed. After the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it’s long past time to end the era of nuclear weapons.

This story was originally published August 11, 2016 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Ruth Zalph: Don’t build more nukes."