David Krieger discusses nuclear weapons abolition with Golden Rule crew 9-4-15

David Krieger, founder and President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation based in Santa Barbara, met with the crew and ground support of Veterans For Peace Golden Rule sailboat on 9-4-15 to discuss abolishing nuclear weapons.

We had to invent a new word for what nuclear weapons do – not homicide or genocide, but “omnicide” – they kill everything.

We have entered an age where humankind has the capacity to destroy ourselves.

Our spiritual progress is not keeping up with our technological prowess.

Obstacles to traction to abolish nuclear weapons – A.C.I.D. – are Apathy, Conformity, Ignorance and Denial. Instead we need empathy, critical thinking, wisdom and recognition (of the threat). The key is education, leading to engagement and action.

This work is the challenge of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

For the first four years of post-WW2 nuclear arms development, from 1945 to 1949, the U.S. was in an arms race against itself. Nuclear bomb testing in the Marshall Islands started in 1946 and a total of 67 nuclear devices were exploded through 1958, with the equivalent power of 1.6 Hiroshima bombs exploded daily for 12 years.

The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty bans testing in the atmosphere, water, and outer space. Since the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the U.S. still does “sub-critical” nuclear testing.

There were other nuclear bomb tests done – India and Pakistan each tested 5-6 times in 1998. China and France continued until the 1990s. North Korea is still testing nuclear weapons.

Our hope is that the people can move the Congress to act in favor of effective negotiations that will result in the complete abolition of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, in every Congressional District there are weapons manufacturers and military installations with associated jobs and supporting businesses.

The U.S. government says “Respect our Soldiers,” as they heartlessly send them to fight in unnecessary wars, and then fail to care for them when they return.

The U.S. and Russia together have some 2,000 nuclear weapons on hair trigger alert. There were 70,000 nuclear weapons, mostly in the arsenals of the U.S. and Russia, in the mid-1980s and there are still more than 15,000 on the planet – which is STILL INSANE!

Nuclear Power: My personal feeling about nuclear power is that it is one of our worst ideas. It was initially done to produce plutonium for weapons and to assuage the guilt caused by using the atomic bombs on cities. In the 1970s, there were predictions that there would be more than 1,000 nuclear power plants in the U.S. by the year 2000. We eventually built more than 100 of them, but far less than the 1,000 predicted.

Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, the only one still operating in California, is built on several earthquake faults. They had reversed the blueprints when starting the plant and Mothers For Peace sued to get them to go back and do it right.

Medical uses of radiation may be the only legitimate use of radioactive elements.

Question: Are there still effects from the atmospheric testing? There were 2,054 nuclear weapons tests, of which at least 520 were in the atmosphere. The radiation released from those tests is causing cancers and leukemia all over the world.

During one Nevada atmospheric test, a film crew with John Wayne was exposed while filming downwind from the test site in St. George, Utah. All, including John Wayne, eventually died of cancer.

We intentionally exposed U.S. soldiers to atomic blasts. Of the atomic veterans, only 5% are still living. The National Association of Atomic Veterans is seeking compensation for the injuries.

Depleted Uranium – it is used to harden armor and for shells to defeat hardened armor. It has been used in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places. It seems like a lot of illness exists from being in those vicinities where DU was used, but the military refuses to accept responsibility.

What is the status of the anti-nuclear movement? It is at a low ebb. Youth have little understanding that nuclear weapons are a problem and media doesn’t cover it – not since the Cold War ended. Accidents, miscalculations, new nuclear states, and a return to the Cold War are topics that need to be exposed. Education is an important element.

David, how did you get involved with this movement? I visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki when I was 21 and gained insight. In my youth I was taught that nuclear weapons were a great achievement, that they won World War II, and that their use saved millions of U.S. and Japanese lives. This was the perspective from above the bombs. It was also untrue. For the Japanese, whose perspective is from below the bomb, we hear of pain, destruction, and death caused by the bombs.

The hibakusha – the survivors of the atomic bombings – are the most passionate about spreading the word. I, too, am very passionate!

Japan: The Japanese government is under the U.S. nuclear umbrella for protection. Japan is a virtual nuclear weapon state – they have tons of reprocessed plutonium and could easily be the 3^rd largest nuclear power on the planet in a few months, if they chose to do so. Germany could become a nuclear power as well.

Hypocrisy: It is so hypocritical how we treat countries we like (Japan, Germany and Israel) vs. those we don’t (Iran).

Nuclear deterrence theory: If we really believed in it, we wouldn’t care about whether Iran and other countries had nuclear weapons because we could DETER their use by everyone. Nuclear deterrence can fail in so many ways, though. If it worked, we wouldn’t need missile defenses, but it can’t be counted on to work. Nor can missile defenses.

Question: Do you work on issues of uranium mining? No. We are focused on the weapons. But ending uranium mining is necessary to bring about nuclear weapons abolition. Lots of countries enrich uranium and all nuclear power plants produce plutonium.

Problems with the NPT: Article IV states that nuclear technology is an “inalienable right,” which is crazy. Article VI, which requires good faith negotiations to eliminate all nuclear weapons, is not being adhered to by any of the nuclear-armed states. This is the basis of the Marshall Islands’ Nuclear Zero lawsuits against the nine nuclear-armed nations.

Marshall Islands lawsuits: We need to WAKE PEOPLE UP to the threat posed by nuclear weapons and bring the nine nuclear-armed nations to the negotiating table. Five nuclear-armed nations are obligated under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and four others that aren’t parties to the NPT are obligated under customary international law. The Marshall Islands may win on appeal in their suit in U.S. federal court. There have been six amicus curiae briefs filed so far.

Question: Will it take dropping another bomb to wake people up again? What a failure of imagination that would be!

What about Ted Turner? He turned his anti-nuclear foundation over to former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, who is funding projects to make other country’s nuclear weapons benign.

Gen. Lee Butler (ret.), former commander-in-chief of the U.S. Strategic Command, gave us an interview and he wants nuclear abolition. See www.wagingpeace.org for more information.

Protecting our weapons: The General in charge of the U.S. land-based missile force was fired for drinking excessively and cavorting while on an official trip to Russia.

There are so many ways that things can go wrong!

There is a movie coming out this month about Stanislav Petrov, “The Man Who Saved the World.” He saw what could have been an incoming nuclear attack and chose not to send the message up the command because he thought it could be something else. It was probably a result of reflections off clouds.

In another situation, a Russian submariner chose not to attack, when his nuclear-armed submarine was forced to the surface during the Cuban Missile Crisis, despite his having orders to the contrary.

NATO expansion to the East, right up to the Russian border should be compared to Russia putting missile defense systems on the Canada/US border.

The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, sits at 3 minutes to midnight.

What other organizations are working for nuclear abolition? International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Lawyer’s Committee on Nuclear Policy, International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility, and others. Two important and larger networks are Abolition 2000 and International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Iran agreement – the U.S. and other P5 negotiating parties in this agreement are not fulfilling their OWN obligations under the NPT.

Annual event: Sept 26th is The International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

What else can we do? Expose the war profiteers – Don’t Bank on the Bomb – Pax Christi in the Netherlands has the list of war profiteers.

What can Golden Rule do? What is our most effective messaging? David is on the advisory board of VFP and could help with our messaging.

We can create an effective flyer to hand out.

Three positive things that are happening right now:

• The Marshall Islands’ Nuclear Zero lawsuits.
• International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has a Humanitarian Pledge. It started out as the Austrian pledge, which 117 countries have now signed. We need a conference of states to agree to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons in the same way that chemical and biological weapons have been banned.
• The International Youth Summit to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. They created their own Youth Pledge that deserves support. Rick Wayman of NAPF was co-chair of the Youth Summit in Hiroshima and will give a report on it.

Read the Sunflower newsletter of NAPF.   Sunflowers are a symbol of nuclear weapons-free world. They are bright, beautiful, natural and nutritious – everything nuclear-armed missiles are not. They rotate toward the sun. They even sacrifice themselves by drawing radiation out of the soil!