[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 27 (Monday, March 13, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E285-E286]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      NUCLEAR AGE PEACE FOUNDATION

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. LOIS CAPPS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 13, 2000

  Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to draw my colleagues' 
attention to the following article by David Krieger, President of the 
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in Santa Barbara. Although I do not agree 
with all of the views stated in this op-ed, it is a thoughtful and 
provocative article and merits a close reading. The Nuclear Age Peace 
Foundation does important work in the struggle to wage peace and end 
the threat of nuclear war, and I commend their work in this area.

                  [From the Santa Barbara News-Press]

               The Most Important Moral Issue of Our Time

                           (By David Krieger)

       There are many reasons to oppose nuclear weapons. They are 
     illegal, undemocratic,

[[Page E286]]

     hugely expensive and they undermine rather than increase 
     security. But by far the most important reason to oppose 
     these weapons is that they are profoundly immoral.
       Above all, the issue of nuclear weapons in our world is a 
     deeply moral issue, and for the religious community to engage 
     this issue is essential. For the religious community to 
     ignore this issue is shameful.
       I have long believed our country would become serious about 
     providing leadership for the elimination of nuclear weapons 
     in the world only when the churches, synagogues and mosques 
     became serious about demanding such leadership.
       The abolition of nuclear weapons is the most important 
     issue of our time. I do not say this lightly. I know how many 
     other important life-and-death issues there are in our world. 
     I say it because nuclear weapons have the capacity to end all 
     human life on our planet and most other forms of life. This 
     puts them in a class by themselves.
       Although I refer to nuclear weapons, I don't believe these 
     are really weapons. They are instruments of mass 
     annihilation. They incinerate, vaporize and destroy 
     indiscriminately. They are instruments of portable holocaust. 
     They destroy equally soldiers; the aged and the newly born; 
     healthy and the infirm.
       Nuclear weapons hold all creation hostage. In an instant 
     they could destroy this city or any city. In minutes they 
     could leave civilization--with all its great 
     accomplishments--in ruins. These cruel and inhumane devices 
     hold life itself in the balance.
       There is no moral justification for nuclear weapons. None. 
     As Gen. Lee Butler, a former commander in chief of the U.S. 
     Strategic Command, has said: ``We cannot at once keep sacred 
     the miracle of existence and hold sacrosanct the capacity to 
     destroy it.''
       That nuclear weapons are an absolute evil was the 
     conclusion of the president of the International Court of 
     Justice, Mohammed Bedjaoui, after the court was asked to rule 
     on the illegality of these weapons.
       I think it is a reasonable conclusion--the only conclusion 
     a sane person could reach. I would add that our reliance on 
     these evil instruments debases our humanity and insults our 
     Creator.
       Albert Einstein was once asked his opinion as to what 
     weapons would be used in a third world war. He replied that 
     he didn't know, but if there was a third world war, a fourth 
     world war would probably be fought with sticks and stones. 
     His response was perhaps overly optimistic.
       Controlling and eliminating these weapons is a 
     responsibility that falls to those of us now living. It is a 
     responsibility we are currently failing to meet.
       Ten years after the end of the Cold War, there are still 
     some 36,000 nuclear weapons in the world, mostly in the 
     arsenals of the U.S. and Russia. Some 5,000 of these weapons 
     remain on hair-trigger alert, ready to be launched on warning 
     and subject to accident or miscalculation.
       Today arms controls is in crisis. The U.S. Senate recently 
     failed to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the first 
     treaty voted down by the Senate since the treaty of 
     Versailles. Congress has also announced its intention to 
     deploy a National Missile Defense ``as soon as 
     technologically feasible.'' This would abrogate the 1972 
     Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a cornerstone of arms control. 
     The Russian Duma has not yet ratified START II, which was 
     signed in 1993.
       Efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons are 
     also in crisis. There is above all the issue of Russian 
     ``loose nukes.'' There is no assuredness that these weapons 
     are under control. There is also the new nuclear arms race in 
     South Asia. There is also the issue of Israel possessing 
     nuclear arms--with the implicit agreement of the Western 
     nuclear weapons states--in their volatile region of the 
     world.
       The Non-Proliferation Treaty is also in crisis. This will 
     become more prominent when the five-year review conference 
     for the treaty is held this spring. Most non-nuclear weapons 
     states believe that the nuclear weapons states have failed to 
     meet their obligations for good faith negotiations to achieve 
     nuclear disarmament. More than 180 states have met their 
     obligations not to develop or acquire nuclear weapons. The 
     five nuclear weapons states, however, have failed to meet 
     their obligations for good faith efforts to eliminate their 
     nuclear arsenals.
       The U.S. government continues to consider nuclear weapons 
     to be essential to its security. NATO has referred to nuclear 
     weapons as a ``cornerstone'' of its security policy.
       Russia recently proposed that the U.S. and Russia go beyond 
     the START II agreement and reduce their strategic nuclear 
     arsenals to 1,500 weapons each. The U.S. declined, saying it 
     was only prepared to go down to 2,000 to 2,500 weapons each. 
     Such is the insanity of our time.
       Confronting this insanity are four efforts I will describe 
     briefly.
       The New Agenda Coalition is a group of middle-power 
     states--including Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New 
     Zealand, Sweden and South Africa--calling for an unequivocal 
     undertaking by the nuclear weapons states for the speedy and 
     total elimination of their nuclear arsenals. U.N. resolutions 
     of the New Agenda Coalition have passed the General Assembly 
     by large margins in 1998 and 1999, despite lobbying by the 
     U.S., U.K. and France to oppose these resolutions.
       A representative of the New Agenda Coalition recently 
     stated at a meeting at the Carter Center: ``A U.S. initiative 
     today can achieve nuclear disarmament. It will require a 
     self-denying ordnance, which accepts that the five nuclear 
     weapons states will have no nuclear weapons in the 
     foreseeable future. By 2005 the United States will already 
     have lost the possibility of such an initiative.'' I agree 
     with this assessment. The doors of opportunity, created a 
     decade ago by the end of the Cold War, will not stay open 
     much longer.
       The Middle Powers Initiative is a coalition of eight 
     prominent international non-governmental organizations that 
     are supporting the role of middle power states in seeking the 
     elimination of nuclear weapons. The Middle Powers Initiative 
     recently collaborated with the Carter Center in bringing 
     together representatives of the New Agenda Coalition with 
     high-level US policymakers and representatives of civil 
     society. It was an important dialogue. Jimmy Carter took a 
     strong moral position on the issue of nuclear disarmament, 
     and you should be hearing more from him in the near future.
       Abolition 2000 is a global network of more than 1,400 
     diverse civil society organizations from 91 countries on six 
     continents. The primary goal of Abolition 2000 is a 
     negotiated treaty calling for the phased elimination of 
     nuclear weapons within a timebound frame-work. One of the 
     current efforts of Abolition 2000 is to expand its network to 
     over 2000 organizations by the time of the Non-Proliferation 
     Treaty Review Conference this spring. You can find out more 
     about Abolition 2000 on the web at www.wagingpeace.org.
 A final effort I will discuss is the establishment of a 
     U.S. campaign for the elimination of nuclear weapons. The 
     Nuclear Age Peace Foundation has hosted a series of meetings 
     with key U.S. leaders in the area of nuclear disarmament. 
     These include former military, political and diplomatic 
     leaders, among them Gen. Butler, Sen. Alan Cranston, and 
     Ambassador Jonathan Dean.
       I believe we have worked out a good plan for a Campaign to 
     Alert America, but we currently lack the resources to push 
     this campaign ahead at the level that it requires. We are 
     doing the best we can, but we are not doing enough. We need 
     your help, and the help of religious groups all over this 
     country.
       I will conclude with five steps that the leaders of the 
     nuclear weapons states could take now to end the nuclear 
     threat to humanity. These are steps that we must demand of 
     our political leaders. These are steps that we must help our 
     political leaders to have the vision to see and the courage 
     to act upon.
       Commerce good faith negotiations to achieve a Nuclear 
     Weapons Convention requiring the phased elimination of 
     nuclear weapons, with provisions for effective verification 
     and enforcement.
       De-alert all nuclear weapons and de-couple all nuclear 
     warheads from their delivery vehicles.
       Declare policies of No First Use of nuclear weapons against 
     other nuclear weapons states and policies of No Use against 
     non-nuclear weapons states.
       Ratify the comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and reaffirm 
     commitments to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
       Reallocate resources from the tens of billions of dollars 
     currently being spent for maintaining nuclear arsenals to 
     improving human health, education and welfare throughout the 
     world.
       The future is in our hands. I urge you to join hands and 
     take a strong moral stand for humanity and for all Creation. 
     We do it for the children, for each other, and for the 
     future. The effort to abolish nuclear weapons is an effort to 
     protect the miracle that we all share, the miracle of life.
       Each of us is a source of hope. Will you turn to the 
     persons next to you, and tell them, ``You give me hope,'' and 
     express to them your commitment to accept your share of 
     responsibility for saving humanity and our beautiful planet.
       Together we will change the world!

       

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