Call for action to stop nuclear arms buildup in Europe

Russia now is threatening the U.S. and making plans for missile deployment in their territories while the U.S. is sitting back and refusing to change course on their plans to "defend" Europe against Iran - a "rogue state- who may not even have the capacity or desire to attack Europe.  The whole MDS too may well not be an effective deterrent against an attack, as it has not been proven capable to intercept an incoming missile, decoy or more than one missile at a time.  Some have called the system money making sham or boondoggle for the military industrial complex to the tune of $100 billion over the last 10 years or so.

With the Bush administration having only a  few weeks left in government, it will be up to the Obama administration to take up this issue of missile defense.  We, as the activist-disarmament-peace-  anti-war community need to step up and convince the Obama team and Congress ( the committees and subcommittees who work with the MDS , the military and appropriations) the absolute necessity of fostering diplomacy now - as soon as possible - in order to avert war, or possible a nuclear war, as these missiles have nuclear warhead capability.

Russia has threatened to send missiles to the northern border of Poland if the U.S. and Poland start to build an interceptor base there which would only be a few hundred miles away, well within range of Russia's missiles.  Lately though Russia has made the offer to hold off doing so if the U.S. stops the plans for building the system.  Unfortunately the U.S. keeps turning down their goodwill offer. Consequently our challenge is to convince our government to foster diplomacy, to talk with Russia and calm things down and withdraw our plans to defend Europe against an attack by Iran.

We need to make this effort and utilize the power as a community who has studied, written, protested and lobbied for disarmament and change to more peaceful ways of settling troubled problems in the world.  It may well be best that no one group or organization lead the way but more of a broad coalition of forces making efforts from resources- contacts and networks-  and experience already gained from years of work and activism. For groups to work on their own and/or with other groups to mobilize their memberships and the public to work with the media and government to press diplomacy efforts as prevention against more conflict and possible war.

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