{"id":91993,"date":"2017-05-08T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2017-05-08T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=91993"},"modified":"2017-05-07T10:44:54","modified_gmt":"2017-05-07T09:44:54","slug":"united-states-says-yes-to-nuclear-weapons-tests-no-to-a-nuke-ban-treaty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/05\/united-states-says-yes-to-nuclear-weapons-tests-no-to-a-nuke-ban-treaty\/","title":{"rendered":"United States Says \u2018Yes\u2019 to Nuclear Weapons Tests, \u2018No\u2019 to a Nuke Ban Treaty"},"content":{"rendered":"

7 May 2017 – <\/em>Twice in seven days the United States shot nuclear-capable long-range missiles toward the Marshall Islands, but the same government refused in March to join negotiations for a new treaty banning nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

Tests conducted April 26<\/a> and May 3<\/a> from Vandenberg Air Force Base launched modernized Minuteman-3 ballistic missiles, and the US Air Force said in a statement that such tests ensure \u201cthe United States\u2019 ability to maintain a strong, credible nuclear deterrent as a key element of US national security\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

In late March, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley explained<\/a> why the US would boycott the \u201ctreaty ban\u201d negotiations that began March 27 at the UN in New York City. Haley said about nuclear weapons, \u201c[W]e can\u2019t honestly say that we can protect our people by allowing the bad actors to have them, and those of us that are good, trying to keep peace and safety not to have them.\u201d North Korean president Kim Jong-un could have said the same thing about his seven nuclear warheads, especially in view of US bombs and missiles currently falling on seven countries \u2014 Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya \u2014 and engagement in massive war games off the Korean peninsula.<\/p>\n

Ambassador Haley managed to avoid being two-faced on one level. Joining the ban treaty talks would have been openly hypocritical while her colleagues in the war department were preparing both new nuclear weapons production and a series of test launches. Another April test<\/a>, at the Tonopah bombing range in Nevada, dropped a so-called \u201cB61-12\u201d the newest US H-bomb now in development and scheduled to go into production after 2022.<\/p>\n

Jackie Cabasso, of the Western States Legal Foundation, explained April 20<\/a>, \u201cIn 1997\u2026 President Bill Clinton signed Presidential Directive-60, reaffirming the threatened first use of nuclear weapons as the \u2018cornerstone\u2019 of US national security.\u2026 President Obama left office with the US poised to spend $1 trillion over the next 30 years to maintain and modernize its nuclear bombs and warheads\u2026. Over the past couple of years, the US has conducted a series of drop tests of the newly modified B61-12 gravity bomb\u2026. Each new bomb will cost more than twice its weight in solid gold.\u201d Of the 480 B61s slated to become B61-12s, about 180 are scheduled to be placed at six NATO bases in Europe.<\/p>\n

US military: \u201cWe are prepared to use nuclear weapons\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

As it did Feb. 21 and Feb. 25, 2016, the Air Force regularly tests Minuteman-3s. Deputy Pentagon Chief Robert Work explained<\/a> before the Feb. 25 launch that the US had tested \u201cat least\u201d 15 since January 2011, \u201cAnd that is a signal … that we are prepared to use nuclear weapons in defense of our country if necessary.\u201d This is a Big Lie. To \u201cuse\u201d nuclear weapons produces only massacres, and massacres are never defensive.<\/p>\n

Jason Ditz put the rocket tests in context for Antiwar.com: \u201cEverywhere and (mostly) without exception, the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) would be angrily condemned by the United States as a dangerous provocation, and the firing of a nuclear-capable rocket would be treated as tantamount to an act of war. Not today [April 26], of course, when the missile in question was test-fired from California by the United States flying some 4,000 miles before hitting a test target near the Marshall Islands. The missile was identified as a Minuteman III, a nuclear-capable weapon of which the US has 450 in service.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two times Haley flubbed her March 27 \u201cpeace and safety\u201d speech were alarming. Haley stumbled once saying, \u201cWe would love to have a ban on nuclear treat\u2026 nuclear weapons.\u201d A ban on nuclear treaties is clearly what Haley\u2019s bosses do want. So she didn\u2019t correct herself when she said, \u201cOne day we will hope that we are standing here saying, \u2018We no longer need nuclear weapons.\u2019\u201d Translation: today the US does not even hope to get rid of nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

Instead, the United States is simultaneously bombing and rocketing across the Middle East, hitting civilians with drones, Cruise missiles, depleted uranium, and even a 21,600-pound \u201cMassive Ordnance Air Blast\u201d or MOAB bomb, also tested April 13, destroying caves in Afghanistan. This giant \u201cthermobaric\u201d or \u201cfuel-air\u201d explosive (FAE) has the mass of five Lincoln Continentals, and reportedly killed 95 people including a teacher and his son. Such is the peace and safety delivered by \u201cthose of us that are good.\u201d<\/p>\n

One Defense Intelligence Agency report uncovered by Human Rights Watch said that because \u201cshock and pressure waves cause minimal damage to brain tissue\u2026it is possible that victims of FAEs are not rendered unconscious by the blast, but instead suffer for several seconds or minutes while they suffocate.\u201d<\/p>\n

On March 29, two days after her UN speech Haley spoke to the Council on Foreign Relations and cleared up any confusion the Pentagon\u2019s bombing spree might cause. Haley declared, \u201cThe United States is the moral conscience of the world.\u201d\u00a0 Well, \u201cAnd I,\u201d Dorothy Parker said, \u201cam Marie of Romania.\u201d<\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>John LaForge, syndicated by <\/em>PeaceVoice<\/em><\/a>, is Co-director of Nukewatch, a peace and environmental justice group in Wisconsin, and is co-editor with Arianne Peterson of Nuclear Heartland, Revised: A Guide to the 450 Land-Based Missiles of the United States.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7 May 2017 – Twice in seven days the United States shot nuclear-capable long-range missiles toward the Marshall Islands, but the same government refused in March to join negotiations for a new treaty banning nuclear weapons. US military: \u201cWe are prepared to use nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weapons-of-mass-destruction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}