Nukewatch Quarterly Winter 2020-2021
The US air force “Global Strike Command” launched a dummy Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile from Vandenberg air force Base in California early on October 29, just five days after the 50th ratification of the treaty ban was delivered. It was the third air force ICBM test since August. The Pentagon says its missile tests are planned months in advance, but the decision to not cancel October’s needless demonstration was charged with contempt for civil society. Rick Wayman, CEO of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, in Santa Barbara, said October 28, “In addition to undermining the treaty through threatening letters, the US government demonstrated its active defiance of the treaty’s provisions by testing a nuclear-capable missile.” Wayman’s mention of “threatening letters” was reference to letters sent from the White House urging treaty ban signers to withdraw their ratifications. “While most of the world’s countries are evolving to a view that nuclear weapons are unacceptable under all circumstances, the United States is testing a nuclear missile built to fight the Cold War, one which is designed to cause the indiscriminate slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people,” he said.
—JL
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