|
Comment on this article |
Email this Article
|
|
News :: Miscellaneous |
|
Bush Position On Nuclear Test Ban Dangerous |
Current rating: 0 |
by Physicians for Social Responsibility
(No verified email address) |
08 Sep 2001
|
|
U.S. Efforts Will Promote Nuclear Testing, Proliferation, Says PSR |
WASHINGTON - September 7 - As international delegates gather in New York for a conference on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Bush Administration has indicated that the only options for attendance at the conference are a 'junior' delegation or none at all. This irresponsible action would send a host of dangerous messages to our world partners in the very dangerous game of nuclear weapons proliferation.
The proposal to send no U.S. representatives to the CTBT conference at the United Nations on Sept. 25-27 continues a campaign by this administration to scuttle a treaty signed by this nation and 160 others and ratified by 79 nations.
In a sneak attack over the Labor Day holiday, the Bush Administration took a huge step towards compromising the treaty by signaling that there wouldn't be objections to a resumption of nuclear testing by China. In addition, the new American Ambassador to India has said that the U.S. will not be a "nagging nanny" on the nuclear issue, which seems to indicate that we will abandon sanctions imposed on India since their 1998 series of nuclear tests.
"Nuclear proliferation is acknowledged to be a major threat to U.S. and global security," said Martin Butcher, director of security programs for Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR). "Achieving a test ban has been a bipartisan U.S. policy goal for over 40 years, and sabotaging this conference is a dangerous and disgraceful act."
The purpose of the second conference on entry-into-force of the CTBT is to promote the treaty and to examine ways to encourage signature and ratification. The first such conference was held in 1999. All U.S. allies in NATO have signed and ratified the treaty, as has Russia. The U.S. has signed, but not ratified the treaty. It now enjoys the unique company of such diplomatic pariahs as China, Libya and Iraq in its attitude to the CTBT.
"There is no conceivable way that encouraging nuclear testing and thus promoting proliferation is in the security interests of the United States," said Robert K. Musil, Ph.D., M.P.H., executive director and CEO of PSR. "The U.S. decision to openly flaunt this treaty can yield only one outcome: a continued return to the darkest days of nuclear fear during the Cold War." |
See also:
http://www.psr.org
|
