Letters to the editor

Protests will target UA link to nuclear weapons

Nuclear weapons recently became illegal under international law. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, negotiated by 122 U.N. member nations in 2017, "entered into force" on Jan. 22.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization ICAN, which spearheaded the nuclear weapons ban, has issued a report titled "Schools of Mass Destruction." This report revealed the University of Arkansas was one of 50 schools involved in nuclear weapons production. In 2017, the UA Engineering College entered into a nuclear weapons "collaboration agreement" with the Honeywell corporation. This company produces 85% of all the non-nuclear bomb components in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. And with $1.7 trillion now committed to "modernization" of the nuclear arsenal, business is booming for Honeywell.

Although it was not covered by the Democrat-Gazette, we held a UA protest in Fayetteville on Jan. 22 when the nuclear bomb ban treaty became law. And we were not alone, as at least 158 groups all over the world protested and celebrated this historic day. After the protest, we delivered a petition calling on UA to cancel its nuclear weapons program to all administrators and faculty of the engineering college, chancellor's office, law school, etc.

We are committed to a sustained campaign calling for cancellation of this nuclear weapons program, weapons that are now illegal under international law. Our next plan of action is monthly protests at the UA entrance on MLK Boulevard.

The most recent polling by Yougov showed a strong plurality of 49% of Americans support nuclear weapons abolition, in line with the bomb ban treaty. Only 32% thought the treaty should be ignored. On this issue, UA is out of step with the American public.

However, this issue should not be reduced to polling and legality. The real core of the issue is that nuclear weapons endanger all of us, and even threaten the extinction of our species. A great book, The Doomsday Machine, by famous whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, details his experiences as a nuclear war planner, and he highlights how many falsely believe the president alone can launch nuclear war. In reality, the authority to start nuclear war is delegated to many lower-level commanders, and nuclear war can be started by false alarms, unauthorized attacks and by accidents.

Also, far too few people understand the dangers of nuclear winter and nuclear famine. A full-scale thermonuclear attack would cause ferocious firestorms in the bombed cities, sending massive amounts of smoke into the upper atmosphere, blocking out sunlight and lowering temperatures worldwide for a decade or more. Within a year or two, this would destroy nearly all plant life, and the humans and other animals that require plants for food. Too many rationalize this danger, but as Ellsberg writes, "No policies in human history" have more deserved to be recognized as criminal, immoral, insane and evil.

For these reasons and more, please join me in calling on the UA to cancel its nuclear weapons program.

Abel Tomlinson

Fayetteville

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