Countdown to Zero, a new documentary on nuclear weapons, makes the case for abolishing them. It opens at the Kendall Sq Theater on July 30.
Mass Peace Action will host a special opening weekend screening at 7:20 on Sunday, August 1. Tickets to the film are free while they last at masspeaceaction.org. Jimmy Tingle will host a disussion session after the screening.
Presidents Obama and Medvedev signed the New START treaty in April which will reduce US and Russian arsenals by 1/3. While only a baby step to abolishing nuclear weapons, ratification is important to resume the arms control dialogue that has been suspended for 15 years. Ratification is not assured and Senator Scott Brown is a potential yes vote. Disarmament advocates would like to convince Brown to vote for New START. Maybe he will join us for the film!
It is vital we secure the Indian and Pakistani arsenals and give them any kind of assistance they need to secure their facilities, any kind of carrots to join the NPT. The biggest danger to our national security is still a terrorist getting hold of a bomb and our President recognizes this.
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p>Also a recent Times op-ed made a compelling case for us to scrap rather than expend billions to update our submersible nuclear missile fleet. It is a Cold War relic and no other power operates them (Russia’s is in mothballs). Those worried about deterrence can at least agree that one Ohio class submarine, with enough firepower to wipeout Eurasia, is more than enough. We don’t need to build new ones, and we certainly don’t need to build more.