Nuclear Age Peace Foundation & The Acronym Institute – 2012-11-09 11:45:05
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6357/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=12082
(November 9, 2012) — The US Air Force is at it again. They have scheduled a test of a Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile for the early hours of November 14. Minuteman III missiles are on hair-trigger alert in silos in Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota. They carry thermonuclear warheads at least eight times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.
As Commander-in-Chief, President Obama has the power to cancel this test and decommission these dangerous missiles. A provocative missile test certainly should not be one of the first messages the world receives after the President’s re-election.
Testing and maintaining Minuteman III missiles is a bad idea for many reasons, including:
* They are located in fixed silos, making them easy targets for attack;
* There is an incentive to “use them first or lose themâ€;
* The high-alert status of these weapons could lead to accidental nuclear war;
* The U.S. government consistently criticizes other countries for conducting missile tests;
* These tests are dangerous to the target country, the Marshall Islands;
* Testing these missiles encourages other countries to develop and test their own missiles and nuclear weapons.
Write to President Obama today and ask him to cancel next week’s Minuteman launch and work quickly in his second term to decommission these dangerous, destabilizing missiles.
THE LETTER
Cancel next week’s Minuteman III missile test
On November 14, the Air Force plans to launch a Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. I urge you to use your position as Commander-in-Chief wisely: cancel this test. Testing a missile that carries thermonuclear warheads should not be one of the first messages you send to the world after your re-election.
I also urge you to work quickly in your second term to decommission these dangerous, destabilizing missiles.
Testing and maintaining Minuteman III missiles is a bad idea for many reasons, including:
* They are located in fixed silos, making them easy targets for attack;
* There is an incentive to “use them first or lose themâ€;
* The high-alert status of these weapons could lead to accidental nuclear war;
* The U.S. government consistently criticizes other countries for conducting missile tests;
* These tests are dangerous to the target country, the Marshall Islands;
* Testing these missiles encourages other countries to develop and test their own missiles and nuclear weapons.
President Barack Obama
Phone:(202) 456-1111
Fax:(202) 456-2461
