Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Tag: David Krieger

  • 2016 Kelly Lecture Introduction

    [February 18, 2016] – Welcome to the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s 15th Annual Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future.  I want to thank our principal sponsor for this event, the Santa Barbara Foundation, as well as those of you who have supported the work of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation over the past three decades.  If you are not familiar with the Foundation’s work, please visit the Foundation online at www.wagingpeace.org.

    Looking to the future requires us to take a hard look at our past and present.  And when it comes to issues of “War, Peace, Truth and the Media,” our record as a country has not been admirable or even decent.  In my lifetime, our political leaders have lied us into at least two wars – Vietnam and Iraq – and our mainstream media has often furthered the rush to war rather than support international law and the sanctity of peace.

    Let me say a few words about Frank Kelly, for whom this lecture series is named.  He was a co-founder of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and served as its Senior Vice President from our founding in 1982 until his death in 2010 at the age of nearly 96.  His life spanned most of the 20th century and intersected with some of the most important people and issues of his time.

    In creating the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Frank and I shared the belief that peace is an imperative of the Nuclear Age.  Peace is no longer just desirable; it is essential for humanity’s future.

    Frank was a journalist, a soldier during World War II, a speech writer for Harry Truman, an assistant to the Senate Majority Leader, and the vice president of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions.  The Center is where Frank and I met, and where he also met Robert Scheer.

    Frank believed that everyone deserves a seat at humanity’s table.  He believed in democracy and in the inherent value of every person.  He believed, in short, in humanity’s future.  This lecture series honors Frank and his vision that “we can shape a more promising future for our planet and its inhabitants.”

    Our lecturer tonight, Robert Scheer, is one of our country’s most distinguished journalists.  He speaks truth to power.  In the 1960s he was a Vietnam War correspondent, managing editor, and editor in chief for Ramparts Magazine.

    In the 1970s through the early 1990s he was a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and launched a nationally syndicated column that is now based at Truthdig.com, which he founded in 2005.  He currently serves as editor in chief of Truthdig.com.

    He is also a professor of clinical communications at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.  Among his many books are With Enough Shovels: Reagan, Bush and Nuclear War.   His most recent book, about corporate and government data-collection and the destruction of democracy, is They Know Everything about You.

    The title of Mr. Scheer’s lecture tonight is “War, Peace, Truth and the Media.”  This is a topic of considerable importance for obvious reasons, but particularly since no war in the Nuclear Age is trivial when nuclear weapons are lurking in the background.  If the stance of the media toward war is docile and deferent to authority, this helps support war and defeat peace.  On the other hand, if the media finds and reports the truth, war is less likely to be embraced.

    America needs more journalists like Robert Scheer, and we are very pleased to have him with us for this 15th annual Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future.  The video of his lecture will soon be available at the Foundation’s www.wagingpeaace.org website.

  • Archbishop Desmond Tutu Endorses NAPF for the Nobel Peace Prize

    Archbishop Desmond TutuI’m writing to share some meaningful news with you. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, world-renowned spiritual leader and social activist, has endorsed the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. This is truly a significant achievement as Archbishop Tutu is himself a past recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and one of the world’s great moral leaders. We are honored by his belief in our work.

    In his endorsement, Archbishop Tutu cited our continued global efforts (since 1982) to abolish nuclear weapons. He also endorsed the Aegean Solidarity Movement and the Club of Rome, Dr. Herman Daly and Pope Francis, saying, “What the nominations have in common is that they represent collective responses to the realities of globalization‚ finite resources and security. They underscore the inter-dependent nature of our human family.”

    We will of course continue to do all we can in pursuit of a more peaceful world, free of nuclear weapons. We seek this for the people of today – our human family – and also for those of the future, so that they may all live in a peaceful and just world, free from the threat of nuclear annihilation.

    Thank you for your continued support and engagement with the Foundation’s mission.

    Sincerely,

    David Krieger
    President
    Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

    Vaya aquí para la versión española.

  • Message to Youth

    [February 4, 2016]

    You are not required
    to kill on command, to wear
    a uniform, to camouflage yourself,
    to place medals on your chest, to check
    your conscience at the door, to march
    in unison, to bear the burden of the body count.

    You are not required
    to pledge allegiance to the flag, to sing
    patriotic songs, to distort history,
    to believe lies, to support leaders when
    they are wrong, to turn a blind eye
    to violence, or to be cheerleaders for war.

    You are required
    to love, to live with compassion, to be kinder
    than necessary and to seek the truth
    in the time allotted to you.

  • Doce Posibles Nombres Para la Tercera Guerra Mundial

    Por David Krieger. Traducción de Rubén Arvizu. Click here for the English version.

    La Guerra del Gran Incendio.

    La Guerra de la Tarde Larga.

    La Guerra del Fin de la Civilización.

    La Guerra Indeseada.

    La Guerra del Fracaso de la Disuasión.

    La Guerra Hacia la Edad de Hielo.

    La Guerra de los Sin Héroes.

    La Guerra Creadora del Mutante.

    La Guerra de los Cielos Oscuros.

    La Guerra de los Escombros sin Fin.

    El Resplandor Verde de la Guerra Derrotada.

    La Guerra de los No Ganadores.

    David Krieger es Presidente de la Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
    Rubén Arvizu es Director para América Latina de la Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

  • Twelve Possible Names for World War Three

    [January 27, 2016]

    The Great Fire War.

    The Long Afternoon War.

    The End of Civilization War.

    The Unwanted War.

    The Failure of Deterrence War.

    The Ice Age Trigger War.

    The No Heroes War.

    The Mutant Creation War.

    The Dark Skies War.

    The Unending Fall-Out War.

    The Green Glow of Defeat War.

    The War of No Winners.

  • Controlling the Media, Narrowing the Conversation

    The mainstream media has great power to influence the public conversation about national and international policies. Not only are they able to choose the news and opinion pieces that they feature in their newspapers and news broadcasts, but they also choose the slant they put on the news and which letters they run in response to their articles.

    I recently responded with letters to two articles in The New York Times. Since the paper chose not to print either of these letters, I am sharing them on the websites of alternative media, including the website of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (wagingpeace.org).

    My first letter concerns North Korea’s fourth nuclear test on January 6, 2016.

    In “Stopping North Korea’s Nuclear Threat” (January 8, 2016), the authors argue, “North Korea’s leaders still believe that nuclear weapons will prevent others from attacking them…This is fanciful.”  But is it?  Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi both gave up their respective country’s nuclear weapons programs and their countries were subsequently attacked and they were overthrown and killed.  These are inducements to nuclear proliferation that have not been lost on the North Korean regime.

    The best way to assure that nuclear weapons are not transferred or used by North Korea or by any of the other nuclear-armed countries, is for all nine of them to negotiate in good faith for complete nuclear disarmament.  The U.S. can’t assure the success of these negotiations, but it can use its convening power to initiate and lead them.  All nine nuclear-armed countries need to be at the table and have their voices heard.  Unless this happens and the negotiations are successful, no one in the world will be secure.

    The second letter concerns the planned modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

    U.S. security officials, past and present, are taking positions on the modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, as reported in “As U.S. Modernizes Nuclear Weapons, ‘Smaller’ Leaves Some Uneasy” (January 11, 2016).  What is glaringly absent from their arguments, however, is the U.S. legal obligation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to negotiate in good faith for an end to the nuclear arms race and for complete nuclear disarmament.  The modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal (and its delivery systems and infrastructure) directly violates the treaty obligation to end the nuclear arms race and will also spur other nuclear-armed countries to modernize their nuclear arsenals.  Further, the failure to negotiate for complete nuclear disarmament encourages nuclear proliferation, which could lead to nuclear terrorism and nuclear war.

    Nuclear modernization, expected to exceed $1 trillion, not only violates our legal obligations under the NPT, but diverts billions away from providing food, shelter, education and health care to those in need.  Nuclear modernization will benefit only the arms merchants and is a trapdoor to nuclear catastrophe.

    If the United States does not recognize its own responsibility for nuclear weapons proliferation and fulfill its obligations for nuclear disarmament under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it should expect countries such as North Korea to pursue their nuclear options.  Further, if the U.S. continues to modernize its nuclear arsenal rather than fulfill its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it is making not only nuclear proliferation more likely, but also nuclear war and nuclear terrorism.  These are issues that deserve a hearing and a conversation among the American people, especially in this election year when we are electing, arguably, the most powerful leader in the world.  His or her views on nuclear policy must be part of our national debates.  The lack of a national conversation about U.S. nuclear policy adversely affects the security of every American and every citizen of the world.

  • Political Responsibility in the Nuclear Age: An Open Letter to the American People

    This article was originally published by The Nation.

    Dear fellow citizens:

    By their purported test of a hydrogen bomb early in 2016, North Korea reminded the world that nuclear dangers are not an abstraction, but a continuing menace that the governments and peoples of the world ignore at their peril.  Even if the test were not of a hydrogen bomb but of a smaller atomic weapon, as many experts suggest, we are still reminded that we live in the Nuclear Age, an age in which accident, miscalculation, insanity or intention could lead to devastating nuclear catastrophe.

    What is most notable about the Nuclear Age is that we humans, by our scientific and technological ingenuity, have created the means of our own demise.  The world currently is confronted by many threats to human wellbeing, and even civilizational survival, but we focus here on the particular grave dangers posed by nuclear weapons and nuclear war.

    Even a relatively small nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan, with each country using 50 Hiroshima-size nuclear weapons on the other side’s cities, could result in a nuclear famine killing some two billion of the most vulnerable people on the planet. A nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia could destroy civilization in a single afternoon and send temperatures on Earth plummeting into a new ice age.  Such a war could destroy most complex life on the planet.  Despite the gravity of such threats, they are being ignored, which is morally reprehensible and politically irresponsible.

    The White HouseWe in the United States are in the midst of hotly contested campaigns to determine the candidates of both major political parties in the 2016 presidential faceoff, and yet none of the frontrunners for the nominations have even voiced concern about the nuclear war dangers we face.  This is an appalling oversight.  It reflects the underlying situation of denial and complacency that disconnects the American people as a whole from the risks of use of nuclear weapons in the years ahead.  This menacing disconnect is reinforced by the media, which has failed to challenge the candidates on their approach to this apocalyptic weaponry during the debates and has ignored the issue in their television and print coverage, even to the extent of excluding voices that express concern from their opinion pages.  We regard it as a matter of urgency to put these issues back on the radar screen of public awareness.

    We are appalled that none of the candidates running for the highest office in the land has yet put forward any plans or strategy to end current threats of nuclear annihilation, none has challenged the planned expenditure of $1 trillion to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and none has made a point of the U.S. being in breach of its nuclear disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.  In the presidential debates it has been a non-issue, which scandalizes the candidates for not raising the issue in their many public speeches and the media for not challenging them for failing to do so.  As a society, we are out of touch with the most frightening, yet after decades still dangerously mishandled, challenge to the future of humanity.

    There are nine countries that currently possess nuclear weapons.  Five of these nuclear-armed countries are parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (U.S., Russia, UK, France and China), and are obligated by that treaty to negotiate in good faith for a cessation of the nuclear arms race and for nuclear disarmament.  The other four nuclear-armed countries (Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea) are subject to the same obligations under customary international law.  None of the nine nuclear-armed countries has engaged in such negotiations, a reality that should be met with anger and frustration, and not, as is now the case, with indifference.  It is not only the United States that is responsible for the current state of denial and indifference.  Throughout the world there is a false confidence that, because the Cold War is over and no nuclear weapons have been used since 1945, the nuclear dangers that once frightened and concerned people can now be ignored.

    Rather than fulfill their obligations for negotiated nuclear disarmament, the nine nuclear-armed countries all rely upon nuclear deterrence and are engaged in modernization programs that will keep their nuclear arsenals active through the 21st century and perhaps beyond.  Unfortunately, nuclear deterrence does not actually provide security to countries with nuclear arsenals.  Rather, it is a hypothesis about human behavior, which is unlikely to hold up over time.  Nuclear deterrence has come close to failing on numerous occasions and would clearly be totally ineffective, or worse, against a terrorist group in possession of one or more nuclear weapons, which has no fear of retaliation and may actually welcome it.  Further, as the world is now embarking on a renewed nuclear arms race, disturbingly reminiscent of the Cold War, rising risks of confrontations and crises between major states possessing nuclear weapons increase the possibility of use.

    As citizens of a nuclear-armed country, we are also targets of nuclear weapons.  John F. Kennedy saw clearly that “Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, or miscalculation, or by madness.  The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.”  What President Kennedy vividly expressed more than 50 years ago remains true today, and even more so as the weapons proliferate and as political extremist groups come closer to acquiring these terrible weapons.

    hiroshimaThose with power and control over nuclear weapons could turn this planet, unique in all the universe in supporting life, into the charred remains of a Global Hiroshima.  Should any political leader or government hold so much power?  Should we be content to allow such power to rest in any hands at all?

    It is time to end the nuclear weapons era.  We are living on borrowed time.  The U.S., as the world’s most powerful country, must play a leadership role in convening negotiations.  For the U.S. to be effective in leading to achieve Nuclear Zero, U.S. citizens must awaken to the need to act and must press our government to act and encourage others elsewhere, especially in the other eight nuclear-armed countries, to press their governments to act as well.  It is not enough to be apathetic, conformist, ignorant or in denial.  We all must take action if we want to save humanity and other forms of life from nuclear catastrophe.  In this spirit, we are at a stage where we need a robust global solidarity movement that is dedicated to raising awareness of the growing nuclear menace, and the urgent need to act nationally, regionally and globally to reverse the strong militarist currents that are pushing the world ever closer to the nuclear precipice.

    Nuclear weapons are the most immediate threat to humanity, but they are not the only technology that could play and is playing havoc with the future of life.  The scale of our technological impact on the environment (primarily fossil fuel extraction and use) is also resulting in global warming and climate chaos, with predicted rises in ocean levels and many other threats – ocean acidification, extreme weather, climate refugees and strife from drought – that will cause massive death and displacement of human and animal populations.

    In addition to the technological threats to the human future, many people on the planet now suffer from hunger, disease, lack of shelter and lack of education.  Every person on the planet has a right to adequate nutrition, health care, housing and education.  It is deeply unjust to allow the rich to grow richer while the vast majority of humanity sinks into deeper poverty.  It is immoral to spend our resources on modernizing weapons of mass annihilation while large numbers of people continue to suffer from the ravages of poverty.

    Doing all we can to move the world to Nuclear Zero, while remaining responsive to other pressing dangers, is our best chance to ensure a benevolent future for our species and its natural surroundings.  We can start by changing apathy to empathy, conformity to critical thinking, ignorance to wisdom, denial to recognition, and thought to action in responding to the threats posed by nuclear weapons and the technologies associated with global warming, as well as to the need to address present human suffering arising from war and poverty.

    The richer countries are challenged by migrant flows of desperate people that number in the millions and by the realization that as many as a billion people on the planet are chronically hungry and another two billion are malnourished, resulting in widespread growth stunting among children and other maladies.  While ridding the world of nuclear weaponry is our primary goal, we are mindful that the institution of war is responsible for chaos and massive casualties, and that we must also challenge the militarist mentality if we are ever to enjoy enduring peace and security on our planet.

    The fate of our species is now being tested as never before.  The question before us is whether humankind has the foresight and discipline necessary to forego some superfluous desires, mainly curtailing propensities for material luxuries and for domination of our fellow beings, thereby enabling all of us and succeeding generations to live lives worth living.  Whether our species will rise to this challenge is uncertain, with current evidence not reassuring.

    The time is short and what is at risk is civilization and every small and great thing that each of us loves and treasures on our planet.

    The authors are affiliated with the Santa Barbara based Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

    Vaya aquí para la versión española.

  • You Are Not One But Many

    Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.

    Your deep voice still hangs in the air,
    Melting the cowardly silence.
    You are the one standing solidly there
    Looking straight in the face of violence.

    You are the one who dreams
    That this nation will honor its creed.
    You are the one who steps forward.
    You are the one to bleed.

    You are not one but many
    Unwilling to cower or crawl.
    You are the one who will take no less
    Than a world that is just for all.

    David Krieger is President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (www.wagingpeace.org). He is a councilor of the World Future Council.

  • North Korea: How Many Wake-Up Calls Will It Take?

    North Korea has been sounding alarms since it withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003.  Its latest wake-up call in early 2016 was its fourth nuclear test.  This time it claimed to have tested a far more powerful thermonuclear weapon, although seismic reports do not seem to bear this out.

    North Korea has been roundly condemned for its nuclear tests, including this one.  To put this in perspective, however, the U.S. has conducted more than 1,000 nuclear tests, continues to conduct subcritical nuclear tests, has not ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, is in breach of its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, regularly tests nuclear-capable missiles, and plans to spend $1 trillion modernizing its nuclear arsenal.  The U.S. and the other nuclear-armed countries are quick to point fingers at North Korea, but slow to recognize their own role in fanning the flames of nuclear catastrophe.

    What does an awakened world actually mean?

    As the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have repeatedly warned, “We must abolish nuclear weapons before they abolish us.”  This will require good faith negotiations to end the nuclear arms race and achieve nuclear zero.  And these negotiations must be convened and led by the US and Russia, the two most powerful nuclear-armed countries in the world.

    If we are not awakened by North Korea’s latest test, what will it take?  What other, louder alarm is necessary for the world to come together and work toward achieving nuclear zero before nuclear weapons are used again and we all become victims of a war from which humanity will never awaken?

  • Join Us in Working for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons

    2015 has been a strong and eventful year for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

    We have:

    • Supported the Marshall Islands (and their legal team) in their courageous lawsuits against the nine nuclear-armed countries;
    • Supported the nuclear agreement with Iran;
    • Encouraged President Obama to fulfill the Prague Promise for a world free of nuclear weapons that he initiated in 2009;
    • Opposed the planned $1 trillion expenditure on the “modernization” of the U.S. nuclear arsenal;
    • Reached more than 5,000 people through our Peace Leadership Program;
    • Expanded our membership to 75,000 people;
    • Reached more than 1,000,000 people through our social media outreach (find us on Facebook and Twitter);
    • Hosted anti-nuclear activist Dr. Helen Caldicott for the 2015 Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future;
    • Played an active role at the ninth Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty;
    • Participated in activities marking the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings;
    • Honored Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Thurlow with our 2015 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award;
    • Helped to organize an International Youth Summit on Nuclear Weapons Abolition in Hiroshima;
    • Been a steady voice for Nuclear Zero;
    • Played an influential role in the lives of 12 college interns who will carry with them into the world the spirit of peace and justice;
    • and much more.

    With your help we can make 2016 an even stronger and more eventful year. We have a great team in place for 2016. Please be a part of that team, working for peace and a world free of nuclear weapons. Stand up! Speak out! Join in!

    Together we can build a more peaceful world and end the nuclear weapons threat to all humanity.