COUNTERPLAN/NUCLEAR ABOLITION

SOLVENCY: USA WILL LEAD THE WAY ON NUCLEAR ABOLITION AND OTHERS WILL FOLLOW

US LEADERSHIP FOR NUCLEAR ABOLITION WILL MAKE IT A GLOBAL REALITY, AND WE AS PEOPLE MUST DEMAND IT

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

What is needed to make these steps a reality is US leadership.  But that leadership is unlikely to come from the government.  It must come from the people.  The people must press the government to show leadership.  Once the US decides to lead, the world could move rapidly toward a safer and saner future. 

STRONG USA LEADERSHIP CAN PUT THE WORLD ON A PATH TO NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT

Only strong U.S. leadership can avert another nuclear arms race and put the world on the path to nuclear disarmament. California Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey has stepped up to the challenge with a resolution calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Call your member of Congress today and urge them to co-sponsor H-Con Res. 82.

US LEADERSHIP MUST BE USED TO ENSURE DISARM

RABIN, 1998 Jeffry Rabin, Is a staffwriter for the LA Times, LA Times, June 1, 1998//Ixnx-Sj*1

And it demonstrates "the impotence of the great powers" to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

However, rather than being dejected about the latest developments, Schell said he sees an opportunity to avoid "an unparalleled catastrophe."

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War eliminated the ideological conflict that led the United States and the Soviet Union to build vast stockpiles of nuclear weapons. That arsenal led to a doctrine of nuclear deterrence based on the threat of "mutual assured destruction."

For the first time since 1945, since the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ushered in the nuclear age, Schell said there now is a chance to engage in a serious effort at reducing and eliminating nuclear weapons.

"As Iong as we are content to hold on to nuclear weapons forever, we have severely limited power ... to restrict others from having nuclear arsenals," he said. "If we embrace the goal of abolition for ourselves, suddenly we become powerful and the whole international community becomes powerful in preventing, others from obtaining them. So, paradoxically, the way to become powerful is to disarm.''

USA LEADERSHIP ON NUCLEAR ABOLITION CAN USHER IN AN AGE OF FREEDOM FROM FEAR

HOWARD BREMBECK, Fourth Freedom Foundation, 2000; IN SEARCH OF THE FOURTH FREEDOM // VT2002 acs p. 35

Should the United States fail to provide leadership in utilizing its nonviolent power in the cause of peace, should our economic power be wasted on narrow self-interest and our energies dissipated in the expansion of our war-making capabilities and in the fruitless pursuit of unenforceable international agreements, the opportunity to create lasting and genuine global security could be lost forever.

The leadership of the United States is vital to the success of our search for the Fourth Freedom. By facing up to the reality of today's world and accepting our responsibility for shaping this period of human history, Americans can exert a powerful positive influence on the world and its future. If we will change the way we think about power, we will be well on our way to discovering a system that will guarantee a truly lawful world.

JUST AS USA IDEAS AND CULTURE DOMINATE THE WORLD, SO CAN A USA INITIATIVE FOR NUCLEAR ABOLITION

HOWARD BREMBECK, Fourth Freedom Foundation, 2000; IN SEARCH OF THE FOURTH FREEDOM // VT2002 acs p. 43-44

If the U.S. can succeed in building the world's most powerful economy, in exporting its ideas and dominating world culture, we can be equally successful in promoting the necessity of enforceable international law. With our enormous influence on the world's imagination, we can gain support for a civilized system of defense. We can make the concept of living without weapons of mass murder, of relying on economic power rather than military force, as popular around the world as CocaCola and other icons of American dominance.