The nuclear bunker buster is back, and it's still bad.
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What you can do: Some of our friends in Congress have sent a letter to their colleagues asking them to oppose the bunker buster. The more signatures they get, the stronger the opposition will become. |
Last year you were part of a critical campaign to stop the Bush administration from developing new nuclear weapons -- and we won! No federal funds can be spent on the bunker buster in 2005, and all work on the program has stopped. That?s $27 million that won?t be wasted this year -- $500 million over the next five years.
This was a huge victory for all of us.
Unfortunately, the Bush administration can?t take ?no? for an answer. It?s now asking Congress to spend $8.5 million of your money on the bunker buster in 2006, $14 million in 2007, and likely hundreds of millions thereafter.
Like last year, we can stop the bunker buster in its tracks.
And, like last year, this weapon (also known as the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator or RNEP) is a dangerously bad idea:
- It makes us less secure. By pursuing this weapon at the same time we are asking other nations like North Korea and Iran to hold back, we are undermining our own efforts to stop the spread of these dangerous weapons. Its like asking your kids to stop smoking while you light up!
- It won?t work. The bunker buster bomb is supposed to penetrate into the ground to reach buried bunkers before exploding. But it cannot burrow deep enough to reach deeply buried bunkers nor to contain its radioactive fallout. The weapon could thus kill thousands of innocent civilians and still not achieve its mission.
- We don?t need it. There are other ways of attacking underground bunkers, such as destroying entrances with conventional weapons.
The time for ?do as I say, not as I do? is long over. America needs to reassert its global leadership on nuclear threats by foreswearing this needless weapon and focusing instead on stopping other nations and terrorists from getting the bomb.
What you can do: Some of our friends in Congress have sent a letter to their colleagues asking them to oppose the bunker buster. The more signatures they get, the stronger the opposition will become. Please click here to ask your Representative to sign on today!
And stay tuned. There will be votes in Congress later this year on this issue, and we may need your help then too.
Thank you!
Ron Zucker