EGN NEWS DESK
To the Editor:
Re the “At the Brink” sequence (Opinion, March 10):
Thank you for highlighting the existential menace of nuclear weapons.
President Ronald Reagan and the final Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, issued a joint assertion in 1985 saying “a nuclear struggle can’t be received and mustn’t ever be fought.” But we squandered the chance on the finish of the Cold War to abolish these weapons.
Today we’re coming into a particularly harmful new arms race and risking direct army confrontation with a revanchist Russia, whereas different nuclear conflicts loom all over the world.
The United States, as you report, is anticipated to spend as much as $2 trillion to “modernize” the complete U.S. nuclear arsenal. More trendy weapons are extra possible for use and to take the world over the fateful nuclear threshold.
A gaggle of residents and consultants has proposed an alternate: “Back From the Brink,” a program to scale back nuclear threat. It calls on the United States to 1) declare it’ll by no means be the primary to make use of nuclear weapons in a battle and invite different nations to make related pledges; 2) take nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert; 3) finish the president’s sole, unchecked authority to launch a nuclear assault; 4) cancel plans to “modernize” its nuclear arsenal; and 5) enter negotiations with different nuclear powers towards the verifiable world elimination of nuclear weapons.
An woke up citizenry should demand that our leaders work to finish the nuclear menace.
David Keppel
Bloomington, Ind.
To the Editor:
The “At the Brink” sequence affords a much-needed reminder of the persevering with grave hazard of nuclear struggle. Yet it understates that hazard in some respects.
The International Court of Justice warned in 1996 that nuclear weapons “have the potential to destroy all civilization and the complete ecosystem of the planet.” Aside from the demise of thousands and thousands by hearth, blast and radioactive fallout, it’s now estimated that even in a restricted nuclear battle, the ensuing clouds of soot would linger within the ambiance for years, killing not less than two billion folks worldwide due to crop failures brought on by chilly and lowered gentle.
With each the U.S. and Russia poised to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike on the mere warning of an incoming enemy missile, such a battle may start accidentally or miscalculation.
We’ve been fortunate thus far, as when nuclear forces have been placed on alert by the moon rising over Norway, a bear climbing a fringe fence at a Minnesota protection set up, a defective pc chip, a photo voltaic storm, and, greater than as soon as, pc operators incorrectly studying coaching applications as depicting actual assaults.
The threat of nuclear struggle will disappear provided that the U.S. and different nuclear states be a part of the 2017 U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Despite the opposition of protection trade officers and a few within the army, the treaty gives a transparent, verifiable technique of step by step decreasing, then eliminating, this abiding menace to all of humankind.
Stephen Dycus
New York
The author, professor emeritus at Vermont Law and Graduate School, has written extensively about nuclear weapons.
To the Editor:
After studying the terrifying “At the Brink” sequence, I may really feel my abdomen flip every time the phrases “American president” have been used as a result of Donald Trump was at one time, and will as soon as once more, be that president.
It is horrifying to suppose our destiny might be on this man’s fingers as soon as once more. God assist us.
Mike Aguilar
Costa Mesa, Calif.
To the Editor:
I used to be astonished to learn the primary installment in The Times’s sequence on nuclear struggle and discover only a passing point out of the truth that it was the United States that first used nuclear weapons not as soon as however twice to vaporize two civilian inhabitants facilities, ostensibly to keep away from the large army casualties that will have resulted from a traditional invasion of Japan in World War II.
This sequence is certainly an necessary and lengthy overdue piece of opinion and journalistic evaluation. But The Times could be gravely irresponsible if it have been to fail to teach its youthful readers in regards to the significance of our personal actions, not simply in creating however being the primary nation to really use nuclear weapons — and in essentially the most horrific method possible.
Indeed, not simply historic integrity but additionally the dictates of conscience demanded that an prolonged piece on our nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ought to have been the primary installment on this vastly consequential sequence.
Joel M. Young
Placitas, N.M.
The author is a historian and the writer of a political thriller about worldwide terrorism.
To the Editor:
I wish to thank The Times for publishing the sequence on the specter of nuclear struggle.
In the autumn of 2022 I and some different folks organized a march and rally in downtown Seattle calling for the common abolition of nuclear weapons. I poured a lot power and effectively over $10,000 of my very own cash into this occasion. We marketed broadly in native newspapers.
I didn’t anticipate to see hundreds of individuals present up, however I had hoped not less than 400 or 500 folks would possibly participate. Instead about 100 folks turned out. I used to be devastated by the low turnout.
I consider that the one factor that can get rid of nuclear weapons from this earth — they usually have to be eradicated — is important numbers of individuals internationally calling for the common abolition of nuclear weapons. But folks don’t appear to care. If and when a nuclear trade does occur, they are going to care intensely, however it will likely be too late.
Tom Krebsbach
Brier, Wash.
To the Editor:
The present disaster regarding nuclear weapons is straight associated to previous occasions. In 1994 Ukraine voluntarily gave up its nuclear weapons in trade for the Budapest Memorandum, wherein Russia, the U.S. and the U.Okay. assured Ukraine’s territorial integrity. But agreements between nations are solely nearly as good because the willingness to abide by and implement their phrases.
Had Ukraine not given up its nukes, Vladimir Putin would most likely not have taken Crimea, a lot much less invaded Ukraine in 2022.
It is possible that Iran and different nations may also purchase nuclear weapons within the close to future to discourage western and japanese powers from invading their territory. The genie is now out of the bottle, by no means to return.
Ken Ross
Dearborn Heights, Mich.
