On January 18, 2013, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Monterey Institute of International Studies, ' Deferring nuclear disarmament indefinitely pending the satisfaction of an endlessly growing list of preconditions can lead only to a world full of nuclear weapons. The longer we procrastinate, the greater the risk that these weapons will be used, will proliferate or be acquired by terrorists.' 10
On April 24, 2013, at the NPT Conference, South Africa's Ambassador Abdul Minty presented a statement on behalf of 74 nations. It started, 'Our countries are deeply concerned about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons.' 11
On February 24, 2014, Ray Acheson of ICAN (The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) International Steering Group and Reaching Critical Will, addressing the Second Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, said, 'I am speaking on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a coalition of over 350 organizations in 90 countries. They do not bring security. They bring death and destruction on a scale that cannot be justified for any reason.'The use of less than one percent of existing arsenals against cities would have extreme and long-lasting consequences for the Earth's climate and for agriculture. This would put billions of lives in jeopardy.
'Unless we act, nuclear weapons will be used, either by accident, design, or miscalculation. The only questions are when, where, and how many.' 12
On May 20, 2014, Desmond Tutu and David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, wrote, in an article entitled, 'We Must End the Madness of Nuclear Weapons': 'Instead of working to end the insanity of the nuclear age once and for all, these nine countries waste trillions of dollars on their nuclear arsenals, in violation of both the treaty and customary international law. We can no longer afford this perilous game of nuclear roulette'13 [my emphasis].
The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs states, 'Nuclear weapons are the most dangerous weapons on earth. One can destroy a whole city, potentially killing millions.... The dangers from such weapons arise from their very existence.... The United Nations has sought to eliminate such weapons ever since its establishment.' 14
All these warnings and countless more have been ignored by the dysfunctional leaders of the nuclear states. They know best. This is narcissism of a high order but it is even more sinister than that. It denotes a terrifying recklessness and absence of even a normal instinct for self-preservation. They have their bunkers but what sort of world would they and their families emerge into?
Leaders of Nuclear States Show Contempt for Us All
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