Editor’s Note: This is the May 6, 2018 Ground Zero E-Newsletter. If you want to subscribe to our E-News, just send an email to outreach@gzcenter.org.
Dear Friends of a world free of nuclear weapons,
Oh, what a long strange trip it’s been. While the news media has been fixated on the money trail between Trump and a former porn star, it has only paid passing attention to the fact that the two Koreas have been talking (I mean REALLY TALKING), and that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), more commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, is an international legally binding instrument, to which the United States is a party.
Now that Trump has encircled himself with a small, close circle of advisors – led by John Bolton and Mike Pompeo – that the New York Times’ David Sanger calls, “the most radically aggressive foreign policy team around the American president in modern memory,” we have a pretty good idea what kind of foreign policy advice he is getting.
In an alleged “clerical error,” the White House issued a statement last week falsely declaring that Iran “has a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program.” It quickly changed the statement from “has” to “had” in the face of the immediate journalistic response. Of course, it used the word “has” twice in the statement, indicating that the Hawks were more than likely working to undermine diplomacy on the heels of Israeli President Netanyahu’s infomercial (on the same day) accusing Iran of lying about its nuclear weapons programs. Speaking of “clandestine,” Israel has certainly been tight-lipped about its “clandestine” nuclear weapons program for decades. So, the Bibi and the D.C. Hawks continue screeching in Trump’s ears, as his self-imposed deadline to either extend or scuttle the Iran deal is just days away!
Please call on your representatives in Congress to do everything they can to SAVE the Iran Nuclear Agreement.
While the U.S. has a President who is tragically clueless about diplomacy, North and South Korea leaders issued a joint declaration after their historic summit, blazing a path toward healing and new relations between the Koreas. The people of the two Koreas who are really one people, were horribly and violently split apart by outside powers, principally the U.S. and its (then) arch-nemesis, the Soviet Union. For all the talk of a Trump-Kim summit, and aside from officially ending the Korean War, it will be the people of Korea who will ultimately reconcile and reunify in some way.
Of course, no sane person would expect the North to give up its nuclear weapons any time in the near future, although the North and South could continue to make serious inroads toward a peaceful Korean peninsula if the United States doesn’t undermine their efforts.
Throughout the past year we have called for DIPLOMACY without pre-conditions (and NOT Tweets) with the DPRK, and we continue to do so. Please check our Take Action page for the full range of updated action alerts on Korea.
If I tried to summarize recent events it would look something like this – Donald Trump illegally bombed Syria, installed a new hawk-head in an already gutted State Department, pushed arms sales to corrupt regimes (like Saudi Arabia), can’t wait to scrap the Iran deal, doesn’t have any real sense of what he is doing with the DPRK, and is building more “usable” nukes. Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention that Congress (deeply embedded in the National Security State and in the pockets of weapons makers) is working on a new bipartisan Authorization for Use of Military Force with no “expiration date.” Whoa; that smells rotten already!
Of all the responsibilities of The Congress, there is nothing right now that is as important as its responsibility to restrict the president’s war-making ability. If Congress is to repeal and replace the original (2001) AUMF, it must find its backbone and reign in the President (creating an AUMF that is not just another blank check.
Please tell Congress “DON’T GIVE TRUMP A BLANK CHECK FOR ENDLESS WAR!!!”
We need to build on this momentum to continue efforts to build peace on the Korean peninsula and in the Middle East, while simultaneously ramping back tensions with Russia and working to de-emphasize nuclear weapons in our government’s national security strategy. This involves a massive paradigm shift, and will require massive citizen-led pressure on all levels.
MEANWHILE, OUR WORK CONTINUES…
MOTHERS DAY AT GZ: Here in Puget Sound we continue to focus on Trident! In just a week Ground Zero Center will honor the original intention of Mothers Day (for Peace) under the theme “For The Kids.” If you are in or around Puget Sound, we invite you to make the pilgrimage to Ground Zero Center on Saturday, May 12th for an all-day event, including a vigil and nonviolent direct action at the Bangor Trident base – still the largest deployed concentration of nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal. Please see the Events page for more information and full day’s schedule.
APRIL 2018 GROUND ZERO NEWSLETTER: The newest issue of the Ground Zero Newsletter has already been delivered to people’s mailboxes. You can read the electronic edition by clicking here. This issue focuses on the centrality of Trident to current U.S. nuclear posture, and a very aggressive and destabilizing posture it is.
KINGS BAY PLOWSHARES: Speaking of the “centrality of Trident,” seven courageous activists recently conducted the latest in a long line of Plowshares actions, this one at the Kings Bay Georgia Trident base. The Kings Bay Plowshares seven remind us that “The ultimate logic of Trident is omnicide.” Their support team has just launched a web site where you can learn more and support them through their continuing journey.
As Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, recently confirmed, when combined, the warheads at Bangor and Kings Bay amount to about 1920 warheads, or about half the U.S. stockpile. Even if we count just deployed warheads, they constitute a little over half of the estimate of 1750 deployed warheads (strategic and tactical) in the U.S. arsenal under the New START Treaty.
While we’ve heard concerns about Russia’s nuclear weapon program threatening the U.S., Trident has been at the center of U.S. efforts to maintain hegemony over Russia for quite some time (as I discuss in the April Ground Zero Newsletter). And much like back in the bad old days of the Cold War, Russia is doing its best to catch up and possibly gain superiority. We cannot afford to go back to the MADness of the Cold War, and a new one is certainly brewing.
Thanks to all for your dedication to a world free of the threat of nuclear war – for the sake of the children and future generations. There is so much going on, and so many organizations working in so many different directions and strategies. Together, we are making a difference. Please do check out our Take Action page, and Follow us if you’re on Facebook. And please send your questions, concerns and/or suggestions to me at outreach@gzcenter.org.
On behalf of Ground Zero Center,
Leonard Eiger
