Target: Jack Reed, Chair of U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services
Goal: Advocate for shared nuclear decision-making responsibilities in America.
Terrorist attacks on a scale not seen in decades have broken out along the Israeli and Palestinian border. The Ukraine war is raging on into its second year. Threats of hostility are rising from China (in regards to Taiwan) and North Korea. All of these alarming developments have once again forced the world to grapple with nuclear arms capabilities and the leaders in charge of making these life-and-death decisions. When reports recently emerged that former President Donald Trump had disclosed nuclear submarine secrets to a foreign billionaire (who allegedly then passed along this information to dozens of others), nuclear decision-making in the United States was brought into the harsh spotlight.
In America, the sole power for launching a nuclear attack falls to the president. This leader has access to the so-called nuclear football: a briefcase containing the deadly launch plans. The president can order an attack against all advice, and military leaders are obligated to carry out the orders without question. Leaving this power to one individual has always been met with serious reservations, especially if a president’s mental capacity is called into question. During the waning days of his presidency, Richard Nixon allegedly made highly troubling comments concerning the nuclear football. And just a few years later, the U.S. was nearly brought to the brink of nuclear war after an erroneous report of an incoming attack reached Russian nuclear surveillance systems. Only the actions of a Soviet military officer who questioned the report averted this catastrophe.
Critics have long called for a substantial revision to America’s nuclear decision-making policy that would put these critical scenarios into the hands of a qualified team trained to assess and act on risks. Sign the petition below to demand America’s decision-makers create a better, life-saving plan for making one of the world’s most consequential and potentially cataclysmic decisions.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Senator Reed,
No one person should have the power to essentially launch a global war and a nuclear holocaust. Yet the United States leaves this enormous potential for destruction with a single individual: the President of the United States. Even in the best of times, this authority comes with serious risks…as was demonstrated in the late 1970s when the world came within minutes of nuclear war because of a mistake.
And in the worst of times—with several major conflicts raising the potential for global chaos—the nuclear football becomes a ticking time bomb where detonation would prove unimaginably catastrophic. Put this power into the hands of an unstable or mentally incapacitated leader, and the threat of this detonation rises exponentially. The time is now to revisit and seriously revise U.S. nuclear decision-making policies. Whether it be allowing cabinet members or military leaders veto power over an ordered strike or creating a qualified team of professionals to weigh and make these crucial decisions, please fight for and make the necessary changes.
The fate of the world may quite literally depend on it.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force
The USA nor any other country should have the power to launch a secular war. We must work together to harness the power of nuclear to help the world run better, more efficiently, than we are doing today. If you believe in UFO’s or not, we should get used to them hanging around. What we do as idiot children of the Universe is a mutual responsibility, us and them! If we blow up this planet they will be harmed or killed as well. They can’t come greet us and communicate as we are so hostile. We kill first and ask questions later. We are a violent, wild, and extremely ill educated, living beings. We do not give, we only want to get. We are not suitable for a society based on mutual respect and having deep emotional intelligence.