COUNTERPLAN/NUCLEAR ABOLITION

SOLVENCY: NUCLEAR ABOLITION IS POSSIBLE

NUCLEAR ABOLITION IS NOT AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM, BUT AN ACHIEVABLE GOAL

Our dream is not an impossible dream.  It is something that we can accomplish in our lifetimes.  Slavery was abolished, the Berlin Wall fell, apartheid ended in South Africa.  We need to bring the spirit of the hibakusha to bear on nuclear weapons.NUCLEAR ABOLITION IS NOT AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM, BUT AN ACHIEVABLE GOALDavid Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.  11.28.2000 A Victory for All Humanity  HYPERLINK http://www.peacenet.org/disarm/
http://www.peacenet.org/disarm/ //VT2002acslnOur dream is not an impossible dream.  It is something that we can accomplish in our lifetimes.  Slavery was abolished, the Berlin Wall fell, apartheid ended in South Africa.  We need to bring the spirit of the hibakusha to bear on nuclear weapons.

PHASED AND VERIFIABLE ELIMINATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS IS FEASIBLE AND POSSIBLE IN A SHORT TIME

David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.  11.28.2000 A World Without Nuclear Weapons

The Cold War ended more than ten years ago.  It is time for a new beginning.  The phased and verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons is possible.  It could be achieved in a relatively short period of time if there was the political will to do so. 

IT IS POSSIBLE TO ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Can nuclear weapons really be abolished?

In over 50 years since Hiroshima, we have become so accustomed to the Bomb that it is hard to conceptualize a world without it. In short, we have "learned to live with the Bomb." We must not absolutize the existence of nuclear weapons: they are a human creation, and they can be abolished by human choice. Treaties have been negotiated to ban chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. Now we need to do the same for the most dangerous weapons of all.

COLIN POWELL BELIEVES THAT NUCLEAR ABOLITION IS POSSIBLE AND INEVITABLE

--General Colin Powell, US Army (Ret) Then-Chairman, US Joint Chiefs of Staff 10 June 1993, Harvard University

Today I can declare my hope and declare it from the bottom of my heart that we will eventually see the time when the number of nuclear weapons is down to zero and the world is a much better place.

NUCLEAR ABOLITION CAN BE MONITORED SUCCESSFULLY

How could we verify that nobody was hiding a few nuclear weapons as a "trump card?"

Satellites can detect the movement of nuclear weapons at missile storage sites. Seismic monitoring and radionuclide equipment can detect nuclear testing. Should any country attempt to break a nuclear weapons ban, its activities would be spotted early enough for preventive measures to be taken. International anti-proliferation law currently works to alert nations to any attempted sale of nuclear weapon-making materials. With scientific monitoring and regular, internationally coordinated inspections of military establishments, it will be possible to sustain and enforce world-wide nuclear disarmament. In addition "societal verification" would be encouraged. If citizens, in particular scientists, saw evidence of nuclear weapons, they would be expected, even rewarded, for "blowing the whistle" to an international authority.

JUST BECAUSE THE SO-CALLED EXPERTS DISAPPROVE OF NUCLEAR ABOLITION IS NO REASON TO GIVE IN TO THEIR CYNICAL AND SELF-SERVING INTERESTS

HOWARD BREMBECK, Fourth Freedom Foundation, 2000; IN SEARCH OF THE FOURTH FREEDOM // VT2002 acs p. 5

I realized from the start that my ideas might be rejected out of hand by the foreign policy establishment. Although I did not hesitate to seek the advice of experts, I refused to accept the cynicism and insularity of conventional wisdom. My years in business taught me the importance of change, innovation and risk. Applying these ideas to international security seemed radical at first. But a balanced assessment of re events indicates that mainstream thinking is changing, perhaps even moving toward a civilized defense. More people have come to understand that new modes of thinking are essential to human survival.