By Leonard Eiger February 2, 2023 Imagine if you will. Down in the murky depths of the Atlantic Ocean two nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines, one British and the other French, are on patrol. These huge, yet nimble giants (roughly the length of one and a half football fields), with some of the most advanced technology available, are bristling with nuclear armed missiles (each one with enough megatonage to incinerate much of a large continent – think RUSSIA). Their crews monitor the waters around them as they cruise silently (very, very silently), deep beneath the surface. Wham!!! The next you […]
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Remembering The Man Who Saved the World (from a Nuclear War)
By Glen Milner & Leonard Eiger The man who saved the world from thermonuclear annihilation in 1962 was born on January 30, 1926. At a time when the probability of nuclear war is as nearly as high as it was during the Cuban Missile Crisis, it is crucial that we recall the story of Vasili Arkhipov, a Soviet submarine officer who prevented a Soviet nuclear strike against U.S. surface warships during that very crisis in 1962. An attack by a single Soviet submarine using just one nuclear-armed weapon would have caused a major global thermonuclear response. In the fall […]
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President Biden: Sign the Nuclear Ban Treaty!
Peace campaigners were at the White House at 1:30pm on Sunday, January 22, 2023 to deliver a letter to President Biden on the 2nd anniversary of the Entry into Force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW or “Nuclear Ban Treaty”). The Biden letter, signed by over one hundred national, state and local organizations, including Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, provides the President with six compelling reasons why he can – and should – sign this treaty now. National organizations signing the letter include Peace Action, Veterans for Peace, CodePink, World Beyond War, Pax Christi USA, […]
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Ground Zero honors Dr. King with vigil at Bangor Trident base
Poulsbo, Washington: Seventeen peace activists paid tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Trident submarine base at Bangor on January 13, 2023. Members of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action stood with anti-nuclear weapons signs and a large banner with a statement by Dr. King stating, “When scientific power outruns spiritual power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men.” Photos and short videos at https://1drv.ms/u/s!Al8QqFnnE036gYpGu_eo4wN6BXHW1w?e=jptnBb Although Dr. King was famous for championing racial and economic justice and nonviolence, his strong opposition to war, and particularly nuclear weapons, generally receive little attention. In a speech to the […]
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Before the Bombs Drop, the Platitudes Fall
Guest essay by Robert Koehler* Planet Earth is in desperate need of an honest discussion about the elimination of nuclear weapons and, God help us, ultimately transcending war. What is democracy but platitudes and dog whistles? The national direction is quietly predetermined — it’s not up for debate. The president’s role is to sell it to the public; you might say he’s the public-relations director in chief: “. . . my Administration will seize this decisive decade to advance America’s vital interests, position the United States to outmaneuver our geopolitical competitors, tackle shared challenges, and set our world firmly on a path […]
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