A Titan intercontinental ballistic missile in its silo (Telstar Logistics)

Overview

The threat of nuclear annihilation would seem to be something belonging to a bygone age, an age of spies and grim suspicions, when the enemy was starkly defined and schoolchildren practiced diving under desks if the bomb should come. It was an era in which people on both sides of a divided world prayed that no one would be insane enough to push the nuclear button. The era passed and we sighed with relief to have escaped the nightmare of that uncertainty.

Nevertheless, the world is still menaced by thousands of nuclear weapons of awesome destructive power; we are still never more than 15 minutes from the end of life as we know it. As those few countries with nuclear weapons remain reluctant to give them up, and in view of the danger of other countries and terrorist organizations becoming eager to acquire them, experts tell us that we are now at greater risk than before from these weapons of mass, indiscriminate death. As long as they exist it is a question of "when" not "if."

What could possibly justify this state of affairs? If there ever was a rationale for holding on to nuclear weapons, such a rationale no longer exists.

It is possible to abolish nuclear weapons--to outlaw them, as chemical and biological weapons have been outlawed. Momentum toward this goal is gathering. Becoming informed and sharing awareness is the first, important step.