Cleveland Peace Action Positions/Recommendations

January 2007

Reduce the Threat of Nuclear Weapons

When the U.S. signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, we committed to reducing our stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Our promise was part of a global bargain designed to encourage other countries to abandon or forgo the development of nuclear weapons. We have not lived up to our commitment. Instead we continue to maintain nuclear arsenals that serve no meaningful defensive purpose. The Bush administration’s reckless pre-emptive nuclear strike policy, threats to use nuclear weapons against at least seven nations, determination to build a new generation of nuclear weapons (despite bipartisan opposition from Congress) further undermines this bargain, sends the wrong message to the international community and encourages a dangerous new arms race. 

1. Reduce and destroy existing warheads: Urge continued arms reduction negotiations and proposed destruction, not storage, of reduced warheads.

Apocalypse Soon, Robert McNamara, Foreign Policy, May/June 2005 http://foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2829

Don't Forget Those Other 27,000 Nukes, Hans Blix, International Herald Tribune, June 8, 2006  http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/08/opinion/edblix.php

Nuclear Arms Control: The U.S. – Russian Agenda, Congressional Research Service Issue Brief, updated Jan. 3, 2006    http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/IB98030.pdf   

Weapons of Terror: Freeing the World of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Arms,  Final Report, Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission   http://www.wmdcommission.org/sida.asp?id=9  

2. Oppose new nuclear weapons: Oppose the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program and Complex 2030, a proposed huge state-of-the-art nuclear weapons bomb factory for new warheads and increased PIT production. End all R&D funding for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator and other new "usable" nukes.  Restore the ban on nuclear weapons testing and urge ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban and Fissile Material Cutoff Treaties. 

Public Comments to the Energy Department on the Supplement to the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement; Complex 2030,  Submitted by (23 national religious organizations)

http://www.faithfulsecurity.org/pdf/complex_2030_comments_23_orgs.pdf     

Statement of Senator Dianne Feinstein, Kennedy-Feinstein Amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill on the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, Congressional Record, Vol 151, #100, Friday, June 22, 2005    http://feinstein.senate.gov/05speeches/cr-kennedy-feinstein.htm 

3. Secure weapons stockpiles:  Strengthen the Cooperative Threat Reduction program.  

Nunn-Lugar At 15: No Time to Relax Global Threat Reduction Efforts, Paul F. Walker, Arms Control Today, May 2006 http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2006_05/nunnlugar15.asp

4. Reduce or eliminate spending for missile defense:  The deployment of missile defense systems will only trigger an arms race that will further increase the arsenals of the other weapon states.  The only true missile defense is the abolishing of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons.

49 Generals and Admirals Call for Missile Defense Postponement, March 26, 2004, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

 http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2004/03/26_generals_admirals_postponement.htm

5. No Weapons in Space

    Vision for 2020, United States Space Command, 1998    http://www.middlepowers.org/gsi/docs/vision_2020.pdf

Space Preservation Act of 2005 (H.R. 2420)   http://www.space4peace.org/articles/counter_space_doctrine.htm