EXTRA! U.S. Congress Notices Problem with Nuclear Weapons!

Could there BE a better moment to force debate
on the elimination of U.S. nuclear weapons?
(Please retweet this message and share this post.)

[UPDATE July 25, 2015: With an agreement with Iran over nuclear technology pending, the US Congress has 60 days to review the deal.]

That a bunch of GOP senators are agitated about nuclear weapons is a good thing. ("Firestorm erupts over GOP letter challenging Obama's power to approve Iran nuclear deal" - March 10, 2015 on Fox.)

. . . and this was just the subtle part of the NY Daily News front page

Now we just need to re-direct their energy to where the real problem is.

Iran and all the other countries in the world are confounded by the existence of thousands of nuclear weapons in US and Russian hands. They have practically no way to change that situation.

The possibility that Iran (or any other country) might obtain a nuclear weapon is significant in several senses -- but the MOST significant sense is its ability to wake us up. (Witness the now-wide-awake GOP members of Congress.)

The trick now is to get Congress to pivot to the REAL challenge: getting the US to eliminate its nuclear weapons. Or -- and this is where it gets really hairy -- getting the US nuclear weapons out of the hands of our thermonuclear monarch.

So many exist, ready to be used . . . .
The world's nuclear weapon
count (August, 2014): 16,400  
(Source: peaceandplanet.org)

Yes, that's right. The real threat is a single person with his hand on the switch -- able at any time to release the thousands of nuclear weapons already standing on alert and ready to go.

You want to talk Presidential power?

Constitution?

Sovereignty of the People?

Well then . . . let's see you take on the king . . . .






Related posts

Elaine Scarry demonstrates that the power of one leader to obliterate millions of people with a nuclear weapon - a possibility that remains very real even in the wake of the Cold War - deeply violates our constitutional rights, undermines the social contract, and is fundamentally at odds with the deliberative principles of democracy.

(See Reviews of "Thermonuclear Monarchy: Choosing Between Democracy and Doom" by Elaine Scarry )











The choices are: (a) take back the power currently held by our thermonuclear monarch; or (b) shut up and pray. Those are the only two choices, and everybody gets to choose where they stand. The people in Congress who won't step up to either of them are a nothing but a bunch of putzes.

(See Congress is a Bunch of Putzes )





There are three centers of power that will impact nuclear disarmament: the President, the Congress, and the people. One of them will have to make nuclear disarmament happen.

(See Countdown to U.S. Nuclear Disarmament (With or Without the Politicians) )

The decision about whether to live with the threat of nuclear annihilation is our decision. And that is why the entire country is mobilizing for mass action for nuclear disarmament in 2015. Are we capable of making sure the messengers -- Obama, Putin, the other agents of government -- hear their instructions from us clearly?

(See NEEDED: Heroes to Bring About Nuclear Disarmament )

How do you formulate a statement that can somehow convince the United States to eliminate its threatening nuclear weapons?  How do you formulate the 10th request? Or the 100th? Knowing all the time that the United States is in the position -- will always be in the position -- to say, "No" ?  At what point does it dawn on you that the United States will never give up its nuclear weapons, because it has the power and the rest of the world doesn't?

(See 360 Degree Feedback in New York (2014 NPT Prepcom and How the World Views the United States))

It may be counterintuitive, but House Majority Leader John Boehner has actually done a good thing by inviting Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress.

(See Bibi and Boehner's Gift to the Nuclear Disarmament Movement )