Joe Biden just arrived in Hiroshima for the G7 Summit.
JOHN STEINBACH, johnsteinbach1@verizon.net
Steinbach is co-founder of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Committee of the National Capital Area, which has regularly organized events with survivors of nuclear bombings in Japan.
He said today: “In the face of a U.S.-initiated proxy war in Ukraine that has brought the world to the brink of direct U.S.-Russian military confrontation and nuclear catastrophe, Biden’s visit to the A-bombed city of Hiroshima is an insult to peace-loving people worldwide, especially the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“The public is shockingly oblivious to the threat of global nuclear war. This is the most dangerous period, even exceeding the Cuban missile crisis. The proximate cause is the crisis in Ukraine, but the stage was largely set by the U.S. government killing a series of treaties. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, signed in 1972, was a bedrock. It made clear that ABM systems could only work in the context of a massive first strike. George W. Bush terminated the treaty in 2002 despite Russian objections.
“Largely as a result of public revulsion at the possibility of nuclear war and massive protests in the U.S. and Europe in the 1980s, Reagan and Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987 — this made nuclear war less likely. But Trump ended that Treaty in 2019, provoking Russia.
“Biden now should re-enter those treaties. Instead, we saw the increased militarization of Ukraine and even President Zelensky indicating his desire for nuclear weapons in Munich in January of 2022. This further provoked Russia.
“If there’s one thing the survivors of nuclear bombings — hibakusha — keep reminding us, it’s that a nuclear war now will not be limited and will not be survivable. Because of SALT and START Treaties, the number of nuclear weapons has gone down — from 70,000 to less than 15,000 today. But today’s weapons are more accurate and larger — and more usable.”