Nearly 71 years ago, on August 6 and Aug. 9, 1945, the U.S. detonated two nuclear bombs in Japan, killing 200,000 people — mostly civilians.
It is unfortunate that the threat of nuclear weapons is still present in our world. But our leaders can take steps to decrease the chances that something like the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki could happen again.
I urge Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler to oppose the administration’s proposal to “modernize” the U.S. nuclear arsenal, a project that could start a new arms race to rival the Cold War that is expected to cost over $1 trillion.
Additionally, the U.S. and many of its allies have not adopted a policy of no first use of nuclear weapons, which underlines the fact that we are still postured to do the unthinkable and deploy nuclear weapons on a preemptive basis. We and our allies must follow the lead of other countries and adopt a no-first-use policy for nuclear weapons.
