TALKING POINTS FOR H RES 373
The only sure way to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation is universal compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The United States must also comply and keep its part of the bargain, working step by step with other nuclear weapons states to eliminate its nuclear arsenal. The first step is ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the U.S. alone has refused to do. The other steps, referred to here as the thirteen promises, are summarized on Reaching Critical WIll.
Development of new nuclear weapons must be terminated.
The present Administration's new policies related to making nuclear weapons the center of U.S. military policy must also be reversed. These include first use of nuclear weapons against even non-nuclear states, preventive wars launched on suspicion of WMD development, missile defense and positioning weapons in space.
House Resolution 373 calls for all the policies the peace movement promotes, including:
Compliance with the NPT including Article VI in which the nuclear powers agree to
- A continued moratorium on nuclear weapons testing
- Ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (NPT)
- Compliance with the thirteen promises made at the 2000 NPT review conference
Termination of new nuclear weapons development
- Termination of all efforts aimed at enhancing the U.S. nuclear arsenal including development of nuclear bunker busters and low-yield nuclear weapons
- Termination of plans for upgrading nuclear weapons and for plutonium pit manufacturing and tritium production.
And reversal of new Administration policies making nuclear weapons central to military policy
- An unconditional Declaration that the U.S. will not be the first to use nuclear weapons
- Termination of the doctrine of preventive warfare in response to WMD threats
- Termination of development of ballistic missile defenses. Initiation of treaty negotiations to eliminate such missiles
- Support for multilateral negotiations to ban weapons in space