Op-ed: The need for Tufts Peace Action

A group of students are organizing a Tufts chapter of Massachusetts Peace Action. There is considerable need for such a group on campus. Massachusetts Peace Action is an organization that addresses national and global issues that are most pressing and threatening to peace. It is concerned with the threat of nuclear weapons, as well as climate change, social and economic inequality, the wars in the Middle East and the interconnections among all of these issues. Peace Action has had successes in developing support for diplomacy and peace in many areas by highlighting these concerns to decision makers and the public through meetings, workshops, lobbying, rallies and petitions.

All of these issues are in the news, but the implications of enormous nuclear arsenals get the least attention. A one trillion dollar US program, the so-called “modernization” of nuclear weapons program, is underway. There is hardly any mention of nuclear arms in the primary debates of both parties. However, the arsenals of nuclear weapons in the U.S., Russia, China, France, Britain, Pakistan, India, Israel and N. Korea pose severe risk for the future of humanity. There is growing antagonism among the countries in possession of the weapons. The U.S. and Russian nuclear bombs are ready to be used in minutes — they are on “hair-trigger alert.” Our president has the prerogative to launch a nuclear war anywhere and at any time that he or she decides to respond to or destroy a perceived threat. The time from the launch of nuclear missiles to the time the bombs explode on targeted cities can be as little as 15 or 20 minutes. That is all the time it could take to kill millions of people and make the earth virtually uninhabitable. We are in a time of many possible threats. Nuclear weapons pose an immediate danger.

Not long before I wrote this, there had been a massive demonstration by tens of thousands of people in London, U.K., including the head of the Labor party, Jeremy Corbin, urging the government not to renew its Trident nuclear submarines. Four U.K. submarines carry up to eight Trident missiles; each can be fitted with a number of warheads. The U.S. has 18 nuclear weapon-carrying submarines which altogether carry over one thousand nuclear bombs. One such submarine has enough nuclear weaponry to destroy most of the large cities in Europe and to cause enormous environmental damage. These submarines are one “leg” of the nuclear “triad,” the other legs being planes and intercontinental ballistic missiles in silos.

What would be the consequences of a nuclear attack? The explosion of the order of 100 Hiroshima size A-bombs or a dozen H-bombs could immediately kill as many as 10 million people. It could create enough ash and debris to blanket the atmosphere and cause a catastrophic drop in global temperature — a “nuclear winter” — that would lead to destruction of agricultural crops and mass starvation for those spared the direct effects of blast and radiation. In short, nuclear war will bring unimaginable destruction to all living things.

Why does the U.S. maintain such a dangerous arsenal? Bringing awareness and understanding of this nuclear danger is a major reason for establishing a Massachusetts Peace Action chapter at Tufts — Tufts Peace Action (TPA). I urge students to join this effort. Thursday, March 17 in Metcalf Common Room, TPA presented the cinematic masterpiece directed by Stanley Kubrick, “Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” In satirical terms, a series of events that could lead to a nuclear holocaust demonstrated the instability of a nuclear balance of power. Dr. Strangelove successfully began a series of TPA sponsored presentations. Other events will be announced. Please consider attending.

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