As commander-in-chief, President Obama should declare that America will never use a nuclear weapon first. Use the form below to sign our petition asking him to make this declaration before he leaves office.
With more than four months left in his presidency, he still has time. Threatening to use a nuclear weapon first increases the chance of nuclear war by accident or miscalculation. Declaring "No First-Use" will strengthen our national security and that of the world.
We already have overwhelming conventional military power over any foe or combination of foes. We do not need to use a nuclear weapon, a weapon of mass destruction.
Senator Dianne Feinstein recently said, "The only moral purpose for nuclear weapons is to deter their use by other nuclear powers. To unambiguously state that we will never initiate nuclear war would reinforce an international norm that will help keep us safe and minimize the very real risk that a foreign power might someday misinterpret a benign rocket launch or a non-nuclear military action as a nuclear strike."
Please sign our petition urging President Obama to declare "No First-Use" as the official nuclear weapons policy of the United States.
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Addendum August 9, 2017: Although President Obama did not make this valuable declaration, our petition asking President Obama to declare No First-Use as official US nuclear weapons policy helped keep this issue alive. We gathered over 2300 signatures. Our grantees and partners gathered thousands more. Today, some 200 days into the Trump Presidency, we feel this policy would still allay the fears of many people in the United States and all over the world that the United States might be the first to use a nuclear weapon in a war. However, the fight has now moved on to legislation that would require Congressional approval for the President's unilaterally starting a nuclear war.
In this second effort, supporting legislation to restrict first-use, we were part of a coalition that garnered half a million signatures for a petition calling for the restriction of the president's unilateral ability to launch nuclear weapons. We are strong and active supporters of H.R. 669, which would require Congressional authorization for a nuclear first strike. This legislation is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, but we are preparing for a long fight that may span several presidential administrations.
Photo: US AirForce launch control center of missile alert facility Alpha-01 US Air Force by Josh Aycock.
