Wilson writes: "Years from now, when the last nuclear bomb is dismantled, it will be because people all over the world had the courage to demand zero - and a safer world for their children, their grandchildren and all generations to come."
Valerie Plame Wilson on Global Zero - the international movement for the elimination of nuclear weapons. (photo: BBC)
A World Without Nuclear Weapons
05 March 13
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2doFTYLK2q8
wenty-five years ago, President Reagan laid out a vision for a world without nuclear weapons, and in his first term President Obama boldly picked up that mantle - most famously in his 2009 speech in Prague, where he announced America's commitment to eliminate all nuclear weapons globally. There is now a unique opportunity for President Obama, in his second term, to follow through on that commitment and set the world's course to global zero. He can do this by pursuing further reductions to the United States' and Russia's massive Cold War arsenals and bringing other key countries to the table for the first multilateral nuclear arms negotiations in history.
This week, Global Zero - the international movement for the elimination of nuclear weapons - is launching a global campaign urging President Obama to do just that. And we are calling on him to make a major announcement about this on April 5, 2013 - the fourth anniversary of his historic Prague speech.
As part of this campaign, we are rolling out a short video narrated by my fellow Global Zero leader Michael Douglas, which is being promoted by a host of celebrities, organizations and students on social media and that we hope the president will watch.
In addition to the video, the campaign includes a letter to the president from approximately 75 former prime ministers, foreign and defense ministers and military commanders; an official declaration recently adopted by the European Parliament in support of Global Zero's step-by-step plan to eliminate nuclear weapons; and a grassroots petition appealing directly to the president.
We believe that President Obama wants to make good on his commitment to seek a world without nuclear weapons and elevate it to be a legacy issue of his presidency - but he is facing a host of other pressing problems in the world and he needs to hear urgent support for eliminating nuclear weapons.
The Global Zero movement is supported by hundreds of respected national security and military leaders from around the world who understand that nuclear weapons do not address today's security threats - and a powerful grassroots movement that's led by the world's first post-Cold War generation, which rejects absolutely the 20th century idea of basing national security on the threat of mass destruction.
Years from now, when the last nuclear bomb is dismantled, it will be because people all over the world had the courage to demand zero - and a safer world for their children, their grandchildren and all generations to come. Please join this critical campaign at www.globalzero.org and join us as we call on President Obama to set the world's course to zero.
Together, we can make history.
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
Comments
A note of caution regarding our comment sections:
For months a stream of media reports have warned of coordinated propaganda efforts targeting political websites based in the U.S., particularly in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
We too were alarmed at the patterns we were, and still are, seeing. It is clear that the provocateurs are far more savvy, disciplined, and purposeful than anything we have ever experienced before.
It is also clear that we still have elements of the same activity in our article discussion forums at this time.
We have hosted and encouraged reader expression since the turn of the century. The comments of our readers are the most vibrant, best-used interactive feature at Reader Supported News. Accordingly, we are strongly resistant to interrupting those services.
It is, however, important to note that in all likelihood hardened operatives are attempting to shape the dialog our community seeks to engage in.
Adapt and overcome.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king!
As long as anyone retains the ability to create a nuclear weapon they will always be with us.
Just Imagine if EVERY Country got rid of them except...N Korea or Iran or any dictator...they would control the World!
Quoting edge:
Korea already thinks its owns the world.
AND clearly they will NEVER get rid of their nuclear weapons...so neither can we unless you want to be a slave to Kim Jong-un
"so neither can we unless you want to be a slave to Kim Jong-un"
This is about the stupidest statement I've ever read in my life. Maybe you are writing a joke. It was the US which enslaved all Koreans when in the Treaty of Washington the US regime gave Korea to the Japanses as a reward for their victory in the Russo-Japanese war.
Pack a bag and go to North Korea, Iran, and any other country where people have reacted in fear BECAUSE of OUR actions. And today we live in fear BECAUSE of OUR actions. If there was a profit in peace we would be living in a hippie's paradise. It is time to do the RIGHT thing.
If we can't we must.
Imagine... is right!
dismantled" is brilliant ; freshest thing I ever
heard--because your line makes you SEE it
happening.
Shoulda been your Opening Line!
Great piece,kid.
I admire you and your husband because
you aren't just Armchair Revolutionaries !
Cheney, Scooter, others could have been Benedict Arnolded.
Obama is SO disappointing. ONLY Romnesia, Boner, Mitch, & the Confederacy of Clowns, Dunces, Knaves, & Psychopaths could make him look OK by COMPARISON. Bankers & traitors still rule, despite heros like Valerie & Joe. The Lamestream Media really are co-conspirators . Internet must DISPLACE corp Medeas before they get US all KILLED.
You do know that it was Richard Armitage that outed Plame!
It was not Rove or anyone you named, you are either obtuse or just ignorant as to the facts!
You do know that it was Richard Armitage that outed Plame!
It was not Rove or anyone you named, you are either obtuse or just ignorant as to the facts!
Very little was done under the Bush administration that was not privy to Karl Rove. If a proper investigation were held today in Valerie Plame's outing, I'm sure that Karl Rove would have been involved somewhere along the chain.
Like all your posts.
That Russian submarine was one of several carrying nuclear-tipped torpedoes. The protocol for launching one of these was that 3 people had to sign off on it. They were the captain, the first officer, and the political officer. If any one of them said "No!," then the torpedo could not be launched. Two of the three were ready & willing to launch that torpedo. Only the political officer refused to go along with it, and that is what prevented the destruction of the human race in the early 1960s.
Unfortunately, I must state the following at this point in the game. It's my humble opinion that both Russia & China would be damn fools for giving up their nuclear weapons. The U.S. for many decades now has been developing new & extremely advanced & effective high-tech weaponry that cannot be labeled as nuclear with the possible exception of Depleted Uranium (DU) weapons. The U.S. appetite for complete world empire has not waned.
If every nation on earth that has nuclear weapons, including the United States, were to get rid of them, it wouldn't end all wars but expand on them since no other nation on earth could stand up to the U.S. in a convention war scenario at this time in history.
Humanity's worldwide indigenous ancestors cultivated a constellation of pro-active check & balance memes for mutual-aid, peace, communication & conflict resolution at all levels in all disciplines including accounting, governance, communications, food production, natural-science , ecological/elem ental design etc. This knowledge such as the Circle of Life, the Medicine Wheel or the Great Law of Peace is active, conscious & empowering. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/home/indigenous-circle-of-life
Humanity has left these human relation balances unattended for so many centuries, but these fundamentals are still available to bring us beyond not only our present nuclear impasse as well as our forever deepening tragedy. Those who would like to go beyond the present impasse should research their own indigenous heritages such as the Celtic peoples of Europe & link this knowledge with First Nations here in the Americas. www.indigenecommunity.info compiles & describes these transcendental social-economic human technologies.
A world without war is much more important to achieve.
Just dismantle that mindset, and keep the bomb. If we can't dismantle that mindset, there will always be something that can be used as a weapon -dismantling a bomb is not the answer.
One thing for sure -- nobody will seriously consider scrapping their nukes unless we do. Reality.
"Twenty-five years ago, President Reagan laid out a vision for a world without nuclear weapons,"
Um, I must have missed that. The Reagan I remember was a bellicose war monger who believed in "peace through strength" and a Star Wars missile defense system. Once, when he thought he was off-microphone, he CHILLINGLY "quipped": "We begin bombing in five minutes".
He NEVER laid out a vision for a world without nuclear weapons. NEVER. Let the record reflect what a war-mongering, pro-nuke jerk he truly was, please.
Other than that one objection/setti ng the record straight on Reagan, I'm with you!
I'm going to bet that you don't remember President George W Bush signing a deal with Russia, then proceeding to get rid of tens of thousands of US strategic nuclear warheads.
It's a bit hard to find the numbers - as our national media skipped out, but I'd guess that he took them down from around 8-9,000 to where Obama is picking it up - "The Moscow Treaty states that the United States and Russia will reduce their “strategic nuclear warheads” to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads by December 31, 2012."
As Obama has stated that he was looking to reduce them in the renewed START treat, from 2,200 to 1,550 ` a staggering reduction of another 650.
Guess that Bush didn't leave Obama much room for big reductions.
And as far as Valerie Plame goes, I am so delighted that she is speaking out about an anti-nuclear (bombed) world for our children!!
And a lot of ignoramuses still listed raptly to him and nod their ditto-heads at his every utterance.
But there is absolutely NO justification for a military budget and arsenal exceeding the 26 next best-armed nations combined; and for you wise-monkeys who used North Korea as justification for this, they don't even make it onto that rarified scale on their stuttering, isolated folly.
But then most of the next 26 provide Universal Healthcare before military spending, making the US more like NK as they would starve their citizens whilst building up their military.
So don't get all self-righteous.
If you REALLY want to get the truth about nuclear weapons or nuclear anything, go to Dr. Helen Caldicott's website or radio program "If you love this planet". She has made a lifelong study of the subject and led anti-nuclear activism around the globe. BTW, she really IS a true MD (pediatric), not a trumped up academician.
It was Fitzgerald who demanded Armitage, that he keep silent on the matter - while he focused on how the politics played out at the WH.
Cheney had nothing to do with Armitage talking to Novak - or mentioning Plame's name.
It's all just politics. Wilson was playing hardball politics with the Bush admin., just like folks on the other side do with the Obama admin., every day.
Besides, it's difficult to imaging - in any sense of the imagination - that Plame, at CIA - was not involved with sending her husband to Niger to poke around.
No surprise there, either. Not legal - and probably was a bit of perjury going on their was well.
All just the daily ins and outs of Washington politics - and you can bet it's been going on before, and presently.
What puzzels me even more, is that a CIA spook who has supported this philosiphy for her entire life, should now come out of the closet, so to speak, and try to convince us, she's turned over a new leaf. C'mon. She was working hard, right up to the second she was stabbed in the back by the folks she allegedly worked for. Her own Govt. There is a saying once in the CIA, always in the CIA.
Therefore, in my humble opinion anything that emanates from this source is questionable for it's motives.
You don't want readers to know that strategic nuclear weapons were reduced under Bush - by Bush - from almost 8,000 to 2,200 - outside of existing START treaty, which was in place until 2010 ish. And that not Obama is promising to reduce them to 1,750.
Sure - there are many caveats to all of this - but goodness, one must have a starting point -other than being silenced.
Education, a more broad context than military, indicates that there are three contexts of energy in the universe. Today, we only are aware of two, the sun's and the earth's. The one in the middle emanating from dark matter, however, brings perspective into the equation, and only that will solve this dilemma of being too idealistic. The answer lies in the book found for free and, perhaps, the only text about this subject that pivots on the notion of structure and historical fact, The Grand Unified Theory of Classical Physics. Look it up. If evolution has anything to do with learning, or learning-to-lea rn as Gregory Bateson put it, it may be too late, anyway.
Frederico, did you make those beautiful T-shirts?--the ones with Arabic writing and a temple/landscap e/human woman form--?
And as far as Valerie Plame goes, I am so delighted that she is speaking out about an anti-nuclear (bombed) world for our children!!
I did not make the T-Shirts. I bet they are beautiful. I am so sad to see what pain some (sub)humans cause each other.
RSS feed for comments to this post