A new generation of “more usable” nuclear weapons and America’s aggressive posture place the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in jeopardy. These developments can only encourage a host of countries to withdraw from the NPT and to advance their own nuclear weapons program openly or covertly, ratcheting up the likelihood of a global catastrophe. When countries became signatories to the NPT they were promised two principal benefits: support for the development of their own peaceful nuclear program and the reduction and elimination of nuclear arms by the nuclear powers. Iran could not get support for a peaceful nuclear program because it was suspected of a covert arms program, while India, a non-signatory to the NPT, received indirect support for its nuclear arms program under the George W. Bush administration; and now the nuclear powers are expanding, not reducing and eliminating, their own nuclear arms in most ominous directions that is also sure to re-open nuclear testing. It is time for the Trump administration to shed its policy of threats and to stop boasting of its most “beautiful” arsenal of nuclear arms.

Source: Huffington Post August 29, 2017 11:15 UTC