Middleboro Review 2: A nuclear weapons heyday

Sunday, April 24, 2022

A nuclear weapons heyday

If nuclear war has been on your mind recently, you’re not alone. A recent poll found that 88% of U.S. adults are concerned about a nuclear conflict between the United States, Europe, and Russia.

The terrifying consequences would be horrific — instant death for thousands, if not millions of people, followed by environmental destruction, famine, and more death in the fallout.

What you may not know is that President Biden is pushing us closer toward the possibility. Last month he proposed spending an ENORMOUS sum — $50.9 BILLION — on nukes alone: weapons labs, plutonium pits, and the production and testing of warheads and bombs.

Why? The failed logic of deterrence. An argument that has done little to make us, or anyone else, safe. The reality is that our nuclear stockpile didn’t stop Putin from building his own. What’s more, it hasn’t stopped him from threatening to use these devastating weapons as he’s waged a horrific war in Ukraine for 45 days.

Biden’s proposed budget doubles down on a failed strategy, in an even more unpredictable environment. Luckily, a fight is brewing in Congress over whether to approve these funds. That’s why our team is seizing the moment, working behind the scenes with allies pressuring Congress — doing everything we can — to draw a line in the sand and avoid a nightmare nuclear scenario.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. As we step up during this crucial moment, we need to ask if you can too. Our average donation this year is $18.02. Can you help us work to stop one of the biggest expansions of nuclear weapons in YEARS by matching that or donating $15 right now?

As a candidate, President Biden said the United States “does not need new nuclear weapons” — and while tensions are high right now, those words remain true.

Pouring over $50 BILLION in completely unnecessary, apocalyptically dangerous weapons is a windfall for the weapons industry, but devastating for people and the planet. Why? One of the biggest risks with nuclear weapons isn’t even international conflict. It’s a simple mistake.

Last month, Cole Smith, a former US air force nuclear missile operator wrote that “there have been more near-misses than the world knows." [1] Like in 1980, when an airman dropped a socket down an ICBM launch tube, piercing a hole in the fuel tank below. The resulting explosion threw the nine-megaton warhead – the most powerful single nuclear weapon in U.S. history – into the woods.

Or in 2018, when an emergency alert system told everyone in Hawaii there was an incoming ballistic missile threat and that people should take shelter immediately. The message said it was not a test.

We’ve escaped disaster time and time again not because of deterrence, but because of luck. But as the United States sets a course to ramp up their nuclear weapons development, other countries will follow — greatly increasing the risk of technological error and human miscalculation, as well as mutually assured destruction.

That’s why we’re working furiously to remind everyone in Congress that we want a future free from nuclear weapons. It’s part of a wildly ambitious, multi-pronged and crucially important campaign pushing civil servants, legislative aids, and lawmakers behind the scenes to stop a global nuclear nightmare scenario — and we need your support to keep it all going:

Every dollar counts — and directly supports our ability to advocate and mobilize grassroots activists to stop a nuclear race to the bottom. So I’ve got to ask: Can you donate $15 now to help stop a new cold war-esque nuclear weapons heyday? Not everyone reading will or can, so if you’re able please consider giving today.

Let’s remember: Success under this current status quo is building a weapon capable of horrific violence. Today, that threat looms especially large, but there’s still time to push away from that eventuality.

Thank you for working for peace,

Amy, Abbey, Eric, and the Win Without War team

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1. The Guardian, “I was a nuclear missile operator. There have been more near-misses than the world knows”