The Ukranian crisis and Putin’s threats have brought to the fore the threat of nuclear weapons. 

   In America when an alarm of incoming nuclear ICBMs goes off, we have 30 minutes to assess the accuracy of intelligence, have our president consider the generals’ recommandations, and then select and deploy the logical nuclear war plan. The alarm sounded three times during President Obama’s terms. Putin has said that Russia has only five minutes to respond to incoming nuclear missiles from NATO bases. William Perry, the  former secretary of defense, says we have been lucky, and are less safe than ever today, before because of cyber terrorism and unaccounted for nuclear material.  

     There is new hope. There is nothing logical about ending life on Earth. In 2017, 126 countries signed a treaty to get abolish nuclear weapons. We need our country to lead the world’s nine nuclear powers out of Armageddon by entering into the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons for a mutually verifiable draw down. As aptly stated by Beatrice Fihn of the Nobel Peace Prize winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, we must get rid of them before they get rid of us.

Lynn Sableman

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, St. Louis Branch

(WILPF is a member of ICAN)