Congress will soon consider whether to adopt a vital policy to guard against artificial intelligence (AI) from ever playing a role in the decision to use U.S. nuclear weapons. But hold-outs in the Senate are standing in the way of the United States adopting this common-sense principle.
Tell your Senators to support the amendment introduced by Sen. Ed Markey to keep a human “in the loop” on nuclear weapon decisions. Tell your US Representative to support the principle in negotiations with the Senate.
The Senate amendment to the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act would set in law the policy that a human must be kept in the loop “for all actions critical to informing and executing decisions by the President to initiate and terminate nuclear weapons employment.”
The House of Representatives has approved the same language in its defense authorization bill. If the Senate matches the House language, the human “in the loop” policy will likely become law. And if the Senate doesn’t adopt the same language, House negotiators must stand firm and push to include the rule in the final negotiated version of the law.
It is urgent that you act now to email your Senators and US Representative to support this critical law! Click below to email your Senators and US Representative, it only takes one minute!
On September 26,1983, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Air Defense Forces was on duty when the early-warning satellite system he was monitoring detected what appeared to be five approaching U.S. nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles. He was supposed to let the highest level of Soviet nuclear command know, who almost certainly would have launched an all out nuclear war.
But he reasoned that it was highly unlikely that the US would launch such a small number of weapons, so refrained from sending it up. It turned out that the mistaken warning was a result of sun reflecting off the high-altitude clouds, so he was correct. This is a great example of why human participation in nuclear weapon decision-making is so critical. If AI was being used, it would almost certainly have led to global nuclear holocaust.
The enormous ethical and legal consequences of nuclear weapons employment must always rest on the shoulders of human beings. Earlier this summer, UN Secretary-General Guterres said “Until these weapons are eliminated, all countries must agree that any decision on nuclear use is made by humans, not machines or algorithms.”
P.S. We can only meet daunting challenges like that above if we have the resources to sustain and intensify CFPA's organizing. At the end of sending your emails, you will have the opportunity to contribute to CFPA’s nuclear disarmament work. If you prefer, you can postal mail a check to the address under my name. I urge you to be as generous as possible.
Sincerely,
The Rev. Robert Moore
Executive Director
Coalition for Peace Action &
Peace Action Education Fund
7 Vandeventer Ave.
Princeton, NJ 08542
Please see CFPA's Action Alert sent on June 14, 2024.
Dear Friend,
This Sunday, June 16 is the first anniversary of Daniel Ellsberg's death. Dan was a CFPA Sponsor, and spoke for us a number of times--including as we were being formed. We remain deeply grateful for his outstanding leadership.
One of his final requests to we who support the global abolition of nuclear weapons was to have a special focus on eliminating Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) which can carry nuclear warheads a quarter of the way around the world in 30 minutes and cause the deaths of billions of people.
In conjunction with this anniversary, a free new 37 minute film A Common Insanity with Dan presenting on this issue has just been released. It explains why it's important to urgently focus on this as a priority in our organizing for global nuclear weapons abolition.
I found this presentation very persuasive and compelling. Another of our Sponsors, physicist and nuclear weapon expert Frank von Hippel, has been giving outstanding presentations on this critically important issue in CFPA's lobby visits with Congressmembers, and at Candidate Briefings--including six Briefings so far in 2024!
ICBMs are the most dangerous type of nuclear weapon because they are most likely to provoke the start of a nuclear war. See my short summary below, which has been reviewed by several of our nuclear weapon experts. I also highly recommend this article entitled America's Nuclear Missiles Make Its Citizens Less Safe.
1) The 400 US ICBMs deployed in several Mountain States could in theory be targeted by an adversary in a pre-emptive attack on the US. The U.S. Nuclear Command has responded by putting US ICBMs into a highly dangerous accident-prone "use them or lose them" launch on warning posture.
2) As a result, these are on hair trigger alert, ready to be launched in just a few minutes before they can be destroyed in their silos. This means a US President would have less than ten minutes to decide whether to launch US ICBMs. In the case of the numerous false alarms we've already had, we have come very close to starting a nuclear war by accident!
3) Many top experts on nuclear weapons, including Ellsberg, former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry, and former Commander of US Nuclear Forces Gen. Lee Butler, have said it is "mostly luck" that nuclear weapons haven't been used in war again since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Eliminating ICBMs would not only make the US and the world much safer from the real and growing danger of nuclear war, but would also save the over $300 billion estimated cost of deploying new ICBMs.
We have been raising this alarming situation with our Congressmembers for some time, and want to increase our pressure. We need your active support to help maximize our impact, as we collaborate with Back from the Brink, the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction, National Peace Action, and others on this critical effort.
I would like to start up a designated fund we can draw on to rapidly intensify our efforts to abolish ICBMs--especially in this critical 2024 Election Year. Click here or below and put "Ban ICBMs Campaign" in the notation section to contribute.
P.S. Please reply to this email if you want to volunteer your time and/or talent to help intensify this campaign.
Also, I encourage you to attend CFPA's monthly Advocacy Committee meeting on Zoom at 5 PM this Thursday, June 20, at which the Ban ICBMs Campaign will be an agenda item.
Sincerely,
The Rev. Robert Moore
Executive Director
Coalition for Peace Action &
Peace Action Education Fund
7 Vandeventer Ave.
Princeton, NJ 08542
Please see CFPA's Action Alert sent on April 1, 2024.
Dear Friend,
I'm writing to urge you to contact your Representative and Senators to advocate for strong U.S. leadership to reduce the nuclear war danger by becoming a co-sponsor of a resolution recently introduced in the US House (H. Res. 1079) and Senate (S. Res. 593). Click here or below to quickly email your Congresspersons to urge their support for this critically important resolution. It only takes two minutes!
UN Secretary-General Guterres recently issued a stark warning: "The nuclear shadow that loomed over humanity last century has returned with a vengeance. The nuclear risk is higher than at any point since the depths of the Cold War."
Putin's war on Ukraine and his nuclear saber rattling have significantly increased the risk of nuclear war. A March 9 New York Times story revealed that in October 2022--almost exactly 60 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war--the chance of Putin using his nuclear weapons was estimated by top US officials to be "50% or higher."
The last remaining treaty capping the massive Russian and U.S. nuclear stockpiles is due to expire in less than two years. Meanwhile, as China is rapidly building up its smaller but still deadly nuclear arsenal, some members of Congress are pushing to increase the U.S. nuclear arsenal to counter two "near-peer" nuclear adversaries.
This resolution calls on the Biden administration to urgently pursue nuclear arms control and risk reduction dialogue with the Russian Federation to ensure the conflict in Ukraine does not escalate to nuclear use, and avoid an unrestrained nuclear arms race. Click here to see more details.
Please click here or below to quickly email your US Representative and Senators NOW and remind them that a world without effective nuclear reduction diplomacy is a more dangerous world; and urge them to act. To increase your impact, also call your Representative and US Senators via the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121! The offices don't crosscheck constituents who both email and call.
P.S. Just a reminder that CFPA's 2024 Membership Renewal Gathering will be this Sunday afternoon, April 7, starting with a free lunch at 2 PM for those who have contributed their 2024 annual membership; and the Program featuring Amb. Daniel Kurtzer at 3 PM in Princeton. Click here for details, and RSVP to this email--especially for the lunch.
Sincerely,
The Rev. Robert Moore
Executive Director
Coalition for Peace Action &
Peace Action Education Fund
7 Vandeventer Ave.
Princeton, NJ 08542
Please see CFPA's Action Alert sent on March 13, 2024.
Dear friend,
Last month UN Secretary-General Guterres issued a stark warning: "The nuclear shadow that loomed over humanity last century has returned with a vengeance. The nuclear risk is higher than at any point since the depths of the Cold War."
Putin's war on Ukraine and his nuclear saber rattling have significantly increased the risk of nuclear war. A March 9 New York Times story revealed that in October 2022--almost exactly 60 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war--Putin's threat to use his nuclear weapons was estimated by top US officials to be "50% or higher."
The last remaining treaty capping the massive Russian and U.S. nuclear stockpiles is due to expire in less than two years. Meanwhile, as China is building up its smaller but still deadly nuclear force, some members of Congress and national security insiders are pushing to increase the size and diversity of the U.S. arsenal to counter two "near-peer" nuclear adversaries.
Unless Washington and Moscow agree to maintain the current ceiling of 1,550 deployed strategic warheads set by the New START agreement past 2026, a costly, dangerous three-way nuclear arms race looms on the horizon.
Last weekend, in response to these and other nuclear dangers, the New York Times launched a special series of must-read editorials about the nuclear danger and why the world is now “At the Brink.” In the introduction to the series, the paper’s opinion editor says: It's Time to Protest Nuclear War Again.
For over 43 years, CFPA has been working exactly toward that end. With our sister groups across the country, we have mobilzed to achieve an 82% reduction in nuclear warheads globally! Click to see a short overview of CFPA's organizing toward that major progress!
But starting with George W. Bush's 2001 withdrawal from the foundational ABM Treaty, all but one of the Treaties that achieved those reductions has been undone. Only the New START Agreement remains in place, and that last remaining Treaty is set to expire in 2026.
Soon, a new Congressional Resolution is expected to be introduced that condemns Russia's dangerous nuclear threats, and calls for sustained efforts to engage Russia and China on nuclear arms control. We need your help to support that.
Even more important, it's urgent that we succeed in preventing the planned $2 trillion build-up of US nuclear weapons--deceptively called "nuclear modernization"--over the next 30 years!
To meet the above challenges and build on our extensive successes, I urgently request that you click the button below to contribute ONLINE NOW!
We can only meet the daunting challenges ahead if we each do our part, starting with contributing NOW as generously as possible. Make your commitment to intensify CFPA’s nuclear disarmament work in this critical Election Year ONLINE TODAY!
P.S. Click to view CFPA's Spring newsletter, and plan to attend the upcoming events included.
Sincerely,
The Rev. Robert Moore
Executive Director
Coalition for Peace Action &
Peace Action Education Fund
7 Vandeventer Ave.
Princeton, NJ 08542
The Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA) is a grassroots citizens' organization bringing together people of all ages, backgrounds, professions and political persuasions around three goals: global abolition of nuclear weapons, a peace economy and a halt to weapons trafficking at home and abroad.
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