'Outdated' Nukes?

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops joined with other national organizations in amassing more than 50,000 signatures on a petition asking for a change in U.S. nuclear arms policy that was delivered to the White House on May 7. “You must act now to reduce the nuclear danger and the role of nuclear weapons,” said the petition. It urged President Obama to “end outdated U.S. nuclear war-fighting strategy, dramatically reduce the number of U.S. nuclear weapons and the number of submarines, missiles and bombers that carry those weapons, and take U.S. nuclear weapons off high alert. Maintaining large numbers of nuclear forces on alert increases the risk of accident or miscalculation.” Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, called the petition drive just one of many expressions of support for overdue changes in a nuclear weapons strategy “still burdened by Cold War thinking.”