Peace Action of Staten Island

P.O. Box 201 St. George Station, Staten Island NY 10301
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Why We Exist June, 2002

     Twenty years ago, on June 12, 1982, during a UN Conference on the proliferation of nuclear weapons, a million people marched in Central Park on behalf of world peace and nuclear disarmament. By the end of the eighties, the "Nuclear Freeze" movement seemed to have made a difference. The threat of nuclear proliferation had become a major public opinion issue around the world, and the politicians had responded by reducing the numbers of nuclear weapons from a high of 55,000 to somewhere around 35,000.

     Glasnost and Solidarity emerged within the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall came down. Gorbachev disbanded the USSR. The Cold War finally came to an end. Russia reclaimed the nuclear arms it had placed in Kazhakistan, Turkmenkistan, and Uzbekistan - who were only too happy to get rid of them. In support of this move, the administration of George Bush Senior began a systematic overhaul of the Pentagon's Single Integrated Operating Plan, which it found bloated with embarrassingly redundant nuclear over-targetting. Bush Senior actually kept a very tight rein on the military-industrial nuclear-weapons complex. All the targets aimed at the Soviet satellites were re-aimed - at our new ally, Russia..

     Not so WIlliam Jefferson Clinton. With his draft-evasion handicap, not to mention his other liabilities, Clinton more or less turned a blind eye to the military and let the great opportunity for global nuclear disarmament slip through his otherwise preoccupied fingers. The military-industrial complex, which had already invented numerous post-Cold War scenarios requiring massive spending on nuclear weaponry and systems, now began to make their plans a reality. They resurrected Star Wars, added 500 new targets (including China, North Korea, Iran, and Iraq) to the SIOP, and began an new "Manhattan II" Project: the Strategic Stockpile Surveillance and Mainteance Program, or SS&M, which allows the nuclear labs to research new nuclear weapons under the guise of "maintaining" old ones.

     At the same time, a new post-Cold War global strategy was being planned by the military-corporate elite. Outlined by Zbigniew Brzezinski, in his 1997 book The Grand Chessboard, it focuses on the Eurasian Balkans, specifically the oil- and gas-rich Caspian Sea republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, and neighboring Afghanistan and Pakistan,.as "the new "central region of pending conflict for world dominance" and global economic control. In fact, Pentagon plans for military action in Afghanistan date back at least five years. The object is not a response to 9/11, but the "stablization" of the area for a U.S. oil pipeline, in all probability to be built by Dick Cheney's Halliburton, from the Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean.

     The Bush administration is wholly a child of the military-energy-corporate alliance. More and more evidence is coming to light showing that the Bush military and intelligence elite not only ingored and even suppressed advance information of the 9/11 attack, but may have actually allowed it to happen to work up popular support for the long-planned assault on Afghanistan. Actions speak louder than words. Under the cloak of patriotic, anguished words, the bare bones of fact show clearly that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz simply hijacked the tragedy of 9/11 for their own pre-established military-economic aims. Bush swiftly declared the tragedy an "act of war" rather than a crime against humanity, and established the "Bush Doctrine" by which the United States would consider attacks on nations acceptable becuase they "harbored" terrorists. The stage was thus set for the attack on Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world, preparing the way for the pipeline from the Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean. Following the tactics of the Gulf War, reporting was tightly controlled, with only obscure "video-game" footage supplied to the media, which had already draped itself in red white and blue post-9/11. Hundreds of innocent lives were taken and families destroyed. This was either denied or explained away as "acceptable collateral damage."

     The drive for Unending War it didn't with the war on Afghanistan. In May, Bush refused to re-sign the 1972 ABM treaty, the cornerstone of nuclear nonprofiliferation, and instead signed a "Moscow Treaty" with Putin that makes non-proliferation a mere paper gesture. Per the new treaty, when weapons are taken off the "active" list, they are not required to be retired or dissembled, but may be kept in readiness at all times, and new research may be done to "modity" them with new warheads.

     An excellent example of this new weapons development is now before the Senate - the so-called "Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator," a "modified' hydrogen bomb with a variable-yield warhead up to a megaton (a million tons of TNT.) Redesigned with a longer, harder body so as to be able to penetrate deep into the earth before it detonates, this weapon is being sold as a more "survivable" or "mini" nuke of less than 5 kilotons, even though no modifications are being made to the actual warheads, and called a "bunker buster," even though their maxium yields remain up to 200 times more powerful than the much smaller bombs, also called "bunker busters," used by the Air Force in its assault on Afghanistan.

     The Bush Administration has also adopted a new premptive "defense" policy of "strike first," has threatened the International World Court, and seems hell-bent on initiating a nuclear war with Iraq as soon as possible. Congress has shown little interest in even questioning this policy, let alone oppose it. Congress long ago abandoned its Constitutional prerogative as the sole power able to declare war to the Executive Branch.

Responding to an Insane World

     We have therefore formed, here on Staten Island, a chapter of Peace Action. Peace Action is the oldest and largest peace and anti-nculear organization in the United States. Over the last 40 years, Peace Action members have worked for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, theNuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the World Court ruling against nuclear weapons, military budget cuts, landmine legislation, and many other initiatives. Peace Action members serve as NGO representatives at thej United Nations and join with labor and community anti-violence groups, advocating for peace and ustice with citizens from around the world.

     Peace Action is speaking out against the proposed war in Iraq, against the loss of innocent lives in Afghanistan, and for steps towards a sane foreign policy. We began by joining the campaign to prevent the Senate from funding the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, to the tune of $15.5 million dollars. Peace Action of New York State has a three main campaigns on their web site. For example, you can you can email our Senators, Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, directly and ask ask them to vote against this latest expansion of nuclear warfare.

     See links section o become more informed. See our Calendar and Activities sections for meetings and actions. Please join us and spread the word among your friends.