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DISARMAMENT
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"...as long as we have nuclear weapons on this
earth, one could claim that no real life is actually
thriving on the earth. We do not have life actualizing
its fullest potential as long as there are nuclear
weapons."
-- Mayor
Tadatoshi Akiba
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Our aim is to have a universal nuclear weapons convention
signed by the year 2010 and ultimately abolish all
nuclear weapons by the year 2020.
-- Mayor
Tadatoshi Akiba
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Many
people believe that the world would be a more peaceful
place if there were fewer weapons. For this reason,
an important component of even the earliest peace
movements was to advocate for disarmament -- convincing
nations to keep only the weapons they need for an
adequate police force.
-- Robert
Alan Silverstein
The
United Nations has made some progress towards disarmament,
with treaties and conventions that create guidelines
and international laws about weapons production and
exportation to other countries. But the UN can only
do what nations allow it to do, and unfortunately,
the profits many nations make from exporting weapons
has slowed progress in disarmament over the years.
-- Robert
Alan Silverstein
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If the entire history of mankind were condensed into
a single year, our knowledge of how to destroy life
on earth with weapons of mass destruction has been acquired
in the last thirty seconds. Never again will we lack
the knowledge to eliminate the world in a single act
of madness. Therefore, we are faced with a dilemma unique
in our history. We must not only control the weapons
that can kill us, we must bridge the great disparities
of wealth and opportunity among the peoples of the world,
the vast majority of whom live in poverty without hope,
opportunity or choices in life. These conditions are
a breeding ground for division that can cause a desperate
people to resort to nuclear weapons as a last resort.
Our only hope lies in the power of our love, generosity,
tolerance and understanding and our commitment to making
the world a better place for all...
-- Muhammad
Ali |
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“Above all else, we need a reaffirmation of political
commitment at the highest levels to reducing the dangers
that arise both from existing nuclear weapons and from
further proliferation.”
-- Kofi
Annan |
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"The existence of nuclear weapons
presents a clear and present danger to life on Earth.
-- Oscar
Arias Sanchez
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"The existence of nuclear weapons presents a
clear and present danger to life on Earth. Nuclear
arms cannot bolster the security of any nation because
they represent a threat to the security of the human
race. These incredibly destructive weapons are an
affront to our common humanity, and the tens of billions
of dollars that are dedicated to their development
and maintenance should be used instead to alleviate
human need and suffering."
-- Oscar
Arias Sanchez
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"The sponsors of war closely resemble the weapons
they create. And smart bombs, depleted uranium, land
mines, rockets and tanks, rather than protect 'widows
and orphans and strangers at the gate,' are designed
precisely to create 'widows and orphans,' to transform
strangers into enemies and enemies into corpses."
-- Daniel
Berrigan |
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We spoke
out, committed civil disobedience, and went to jail because
the peace hangs senselessly and precariously upon weapons
costing billions to build and billions to improve — weapons
which become more useless as we add to their destructive
force. With this money we could have fed the world's people.
Half the children on earth go to bed hungry — millions more
have retarding and stunting protein deficiencies. Instead
of building the peace by attacking injustices like starvation,
disease, illiteracy, political and economic servitude, we
spend a trillion dollars on war since 1946, until hatred
and conflict have become the international preoccupation."
-- Daniel
Berrigan
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"Nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth;
to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use
them, is a curse against God, the human family, and
the earth itself."
-- Philip
Berrigan
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"I call on all scientists in all countries to
cease and desist from work creating, developing, improving
and manufacturing further nuclear weapons - and, for
that matter, other weapons of potential mass destruction
such as chemical and biological weapons."
-- Hans
Bethe
Today
we are rightly in an era of disarmament and dismantlement
of nuclear weapons. But in some countries nuclear
weapons development still continues. Whether and when
the various Nations of the World can agree to stop
this is uncertain. But individual scientists can still
influence this process by withholding their skills.
-- Hans
Bethe
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"It is my profound conviction that nuclear weapons
did not, and will not, of themselves prevent major
war. To the contrary, I am persuaded that the presence
of these hideous devices unnecessarily prolonged and
intensified the Cold War. In today's security environment,
threats of their employment have been fully exposed
as neither credible nor of any military utility."
-- General
Lee Butler, head of US Strategic Nuclear Forces
1991-1994.
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It is a measure of arrogance to assert that a nuclear
weapons-free world is impossible when 95% of the nations
of the world are already nuclear-free. I think that
the vast majority of people on the face of this earth
will endorse the proposition that nuclear weapons
have no place among us. There is no security in nuclear
weapons. It is a fool’s game.”
-- General
Lee Butler, head of US Strategic Nuclear Forces
1991-1994
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"As a doctor, as well as a mother and a world citizen,
I wish to practice the ultimate form of preventive medicine
by ridding the earth of these technologies that propagate
disease, suffering, and death."
-- Helen
Caldicott |
Finally,
a safer world presupposes the revival of the virtuous circle
of non-proliferation of weapons and disarmament.
-- Jacques Chirac
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Ultimately
the success of any nonproliferation strategy requires
a universal standard. Washington’s “Do as I say, not
as I do” approach lacks moral authority and is seen
as hypocritical. It is like preaching temperance from
a bar stool.
-- David
Cortright
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Reducing the nuclear danger will require a universal,
consistent opposition to all forms of weapons development
-- David
Cortright
In
no circumstance would the United States or any other
nation have the right to mount a military invasion
to overthrow another government for the ostensible
purpose of achieving disarmament. Rather, the United
States would respect the Charter of the UN and would
strive to achieve disarmament and settle the differences
among nations through peaceful diplomatic means.
-- David
Cortright
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"There’s a very simple reason for focusing on
the nuclear issue. Many, many issues are of supreme
importance in one way or another, but if we blow ourselves
up with nuclear weapons, no other issue is really
going to matter. Quite possibly there would be no
other human beings left to be concerned about anything
else."
-- Alan
Cranston
Unprecedented
warnings by officials most closely linked with nuclear
arms negotiations and defense strategy indicate that
we are running out of time. If we fail to act soon,
the scars of a major nuclear disaster will mark our
immediate and distant future.
-- Alan
Cranston
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Well, it was quite a century, the best of times, the
worst of times; and as we run down now toward the
end of it, we can all recite our litany of despair:
overpopulation; pollution; a faltering educational
system; the rich getting richer, the poor getting
poorer; racial tension; drugs; too many guns. But
you know, if there's anything I've learned, it is
that we Americans do have a way of rising to the challenges
that confront us. Just when it seems we're most divided,
we suddenly show a remarkable solidarity. The 20th
century may be leaving us with a host of problems,
but I've also noted that it does seem darkest before
the dawn. There's reason to hope for the 21st century.
And that's the way it will be.
-- Walter
Cronkite
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“Anger and hatred cannot bring harmony. The noble
task of arms control and disarmament cannot be accomplished
by confrontation and condemnation. Hostile attitudes
only serve to heat up the situation, whereas a true
sense of respect gradually cools down what otherwise
could become explosive. We must recognize the frequent
contradictions between short-term benefit and long-term
harm.”
~ Dalai
Lama
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"The nuclear arms race is like two people sitting
in a pool of gasoline spending all their time making
matches."
-- John
Denver |
I
will continue to forcefully support nonproliferation activities
around the world.
-- Pete Domenici
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"Wherever arms flow, violence follows. Bullets replace
ballots as the solution to political disputes."
-- Michael
Douglas
I
have met with political leaders, legislators, and
diplomats, seeking the next steps to press in reducing
and eliminating the nuclear threat in this century.
I have participated in public coalitions developing
programmes for action to combat the global rash of
small arms. All are trying and making a difference.
-- Michael
Douglas
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Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
-- Bob
Dylan
Come
you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks.
-- Bob
Dylan
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I do not know with what weapons World War 3 will be
fought, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks
and stones.
-- Albert
Einstein
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Controlled,
universal disarmament is the imperative of our time.
The demand for it by the hundreds of millions whose
chief concern is the long future of themselves and
their children will, I hope, become so universal and
so insistent that no man, no government anywhere,
can withstand it.
-- Dwight
D. Eisenhower
Disarmament,
with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing
imperative.
-- Dwight
D. Eisenhower
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It is time for the rest of the world to join ... in
demanding that ALL the nuclear weapons states -including
Israel, India and Pakistan, but above all the US and
Russia - negotiate concrete steps on a definite time-table
toward the global, inspected abolition of nuclear
weapons.
-- Daniel
Ellsberg
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When
faced with world problems – like hunger, overpopulation,
nuclear weapons, the arms trade – you may be among
those who are overwhelmed by a feeling of “Help! What
on earth can I, just one person, do about this?” Take
heart. That’s a sane response. It’s the basis for
a whole new attitude to world problems, where change
at the level of the individual is more and more recognised
as essential to change in huge world systems.
-- Scilla
Elworthy
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Instead
of starting a new nuclear arms race, now is the time to
reclaim our Nation's position of leadership on nuclear nonproliferation
efforts.
-- Dianne Feinstein
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We have been led to believe that we have come a long
way toward world nuclear disarmament. But that is
not the case. Our government is not doing all that
it could. We must urge our leaders to fulfill the
obligations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The United States must assume world leadership to
end once and for all the threat of nuclear war. It
is our moral responsibility.
~ Harrison
Ford
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" A
civilization built on dualism and war within and between
persons, one that puts its most creative minds and its
best engineers to sadistic work building more and more
destructive weapons, is no civilization at all. It needs
a radical transformation from the heart outwards. It
needs to outgrow and outlaw war just as in the last
century it outlawed slavery. The human race has outgrown
war, but it hardly knows it yet."
-- Matthew
Fox |
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"It is really a moral and ethical question. Should
we be moving the already insane and expensive global
arms race into space or should the U.S. be doing everything
it can now, before it is too late, to create international
agreements to keep space for peace?"
~ Bruce
Gagnon
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“The
role of the U.S. in the new world corporate order is going
to be to export security. That means endless wars and weapons
in space. The Pentagon will send our kids off to foreign
lands to suppress opposition to corporate globalization.
How will we ever end America’s addiction to war and violence
as long as our communities are dependent on military spending
for jobs? We must work to convert the military industrial
complex to sustainable technologies like windpower, solar,
and mass transit.”
~ Bruce
Gagnon
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From the point of view of the economy, the sale of weapons
is indistinguishable from the sale of food. When a building
collapses or a plane crashes, it?s rather inconvenient
from the point of view of those inside, but it?s altogether
convenient for the growth of the gross national product,
which sometimes ought to be called the "gross criminal
product."
-- Eduardo
Galeano |
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We should put away the militaristic outlook. The U.S.
should start talking about disarmament, nuclear disarmament,
of the region.
~ Akbar
Ganji
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...convince
all nuclear powers, including those which have been
more reluctant up to now, of the necessity to respect
the "vital interests" of all peoples and to become
fully aware of the profound truth of the following
conclusion which the United Nations approved by unanimity
four years ago: "Mankind is confronted with a choice:
we must halt the arms race and proceed to disarmament
or face annihilation".
~ Alfonso
García Robles
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The
fact that lately some circles, not less powerful by their
small size, have been actively promoting certain theories,
as dangerous as they are illusory, of a "limited", "winnable"
or "protracted" nuclear war, as well as their obsession
of "nuclear superiority", make it advisable to bear always
in mind that the immediate goal of all States, as was expressly
declared in the Final Document of the Special Assembly of
1978, "is that of the elimination of the danger of a nuclear
war".
~ Alfonso
García Robles
If disarmament,
as I have taken the liberty to suggest, were in the future
to become the decisive criterion for the evaluation by the
Nobel Committee of the activities for peace, it would constitute,
just as the Campaign which I have mentioned, another invaluable
element to convince all nuclear powers, including those
which have been more reluctant up to now, of the necessity
to respect the "vital interests" of all peoples and to become
fully aware of the profound truth of the following conclusion
which the United Nations approved by unanimity four years
ago: "Mankind is confronted with a choice: we must halt
the arms race and proceed to disarmament or face annihilation".
~ Alfonso
García Robles
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It is my firm belief that the infinite and uncontrollable
fury of nuclear weapons should never be held in the
hands of any mere mortal ever again, for any reason.
~ Mikhail
Gorbachev
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Nuclear weapons elimination will make all states and
their people safer. It is time to assert our right
to live in a nuclear weapons free world.
-- Jonathan
Granoff
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Nuclear weapons have forced us to consider whether we will
be the last generation. They challenge the moral dimension
of our humanity. Our technological abilities must not outstrip
our moral insights, rendering us less than fully human.
For in this age, acting without reliance on the gifts of
law, morality and wisdom will be lethal. What right do we
have to place all life on the planet at risk in the service
of a human construction, the state, when it is presently
legally required and within our political means to globally
eliminate all nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons elimination
will make all states and their people safer. It is time
to assert our right to live in a nuclear weapons free world.
-- Jonathan
Granoff
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American
foreign policy is not understood by the vast majority
of American people. And that this is due to a media
that in this country is suppressed by Washington and
by the owners of this media, who often tend to be
corporate entities close to the [White House] and
very often are arms manufacturers with a vested interest
in chaos [in] the Middle East. And as a result Americans
do not actually get both sides of the story.
-- Denis
Halliday
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Much of the big media outlets in North America are
owned by arms manufacturers, like Westinghouse, or
G.E. [General Electric]. That’s unacceptable. So we’re
not getting editorial policy, we’re not getting a
vision of truth. People just don’t know what is going
on anymore, and that’s really dangerous stuff.
-- Denis
Halliday
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"I support
a very active programme on disarmament and arms control
for Iraq, and of course every other country in the world...
That does not require economic sanctions...I think we've
got to take the risk and give up economic sanctions while
hanging on to the disarmament programme and allow the Iraqis
to get on with rebuilding their country."
-- Denis
Halliday
I
appeal to the responsibility of the blocs and the major
powers, not to seek security in the arms race, but rather
in a meeting for joint disarmament and arms limitations.
-- Gustav Heinemann
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The world wants disarmament, the world needs disarmament.
We have it in our power to help fashion future history.
-- Arthur
Henderson
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As
a first step there must be an offer to achieve equality
of rights in disarmament by abolishing the weapons forbidden
to the Central Powers by the Peace Treaties.
-- Arthur
Henderson
It
has become impossible to give up the enterprise of disarmament
without abandoning the whole great adventure of building
up a collective peace system.
-- Arthur
Henderson
Perhaps
the grimmest aspect of this great paradox is that the very
nations that are chiefly responsible for starting and for
maintaining the Disarmament Conference are also the nations
that have begun a new arms race.
-- Arthur
Henderson
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For the first time in the history of mankind, one
generation literally has the power to destroy the
past, the present and the future, the power to bring
time to an end
-- Hubert
Humphrey
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Explore
YOUR family tree
and Find YOUR Roots & Connections
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We
invite people working for peace to span generations
and national boundaries, and gather together to communicate.
Let us firmly join hands and foster an even stronger
network for nuclear abolition and peace.
-- Iccho
Itoh
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The time has come for those nations that rely on the
force of nuclear armaments to respectfully heed the
voices of peace-loving people, not least the atomic
bomb survivors, to strive in good faith for nuclear
disarmament and non-proliferation, and to advance
towards the complete abolishment of all such weapons.
-- Iccho
Itoh
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The
best way to begin disarming is to begin-and the United States
is ready to conclude firm agreements in these areas and
to consider any other reasonable proposal.
-Lyndon Baines Johnson
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No
treaty, however much it may be to the advantage
of all, however tightly it may be worded, can provide
absolute security against the risks of deception
and evasion. But it can, if it is sufficiently effective
in its enforcement and if it is sufficiently in
the interests of its signers, offer far more security
and far fewer risks than an unabated, uncontrolled,
unpredictable arms race.
~ John
F. Kennedy
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"We
must create world-wide law and law enforcement as
we outlaw world-wide war and weapons"
-- John
F. Kennedy
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Today,
every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day
when this planet may no longer be habitable. Every man,
woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles
hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being
cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by
madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they
abolish us… The mere existence of modern weapons … is
a sources of horror and discord and distrust.
~ John
F. Kennedy
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If we are to achieve a world free from nuclear weapons,
we need the involvement of young people. Youth have
energy, enthusiasm and many good ideas to share.
Most importantly, however, it is young people who
will be inheriting the problems which have been
left to them by the generations past.
-- Marc
Kielburger
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Somehow we must transform the dynamics of the world
power struggle from the negative nuclear arms race
which no one can win to a positive contest to harness
man's creative genius for the purpose of making
peace and prosperity a reality for all of the nations
of the world.
--
Martin
Luther King, Jr
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"We
have ancient habits to deal with, vast structures of power,
indescribably complicated problems to solve. But unless
we abdicate our humanity altogether and succumb to fear
and impotence in the presence of the weapons we have ourselves
created, it is as possible and as urgent to put an end
to war and violence between nations as it is to put an
end to poverty and racial injustice."
-- Martin
Luther King, Jr
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We all have choices. We can build walls or we can
build bridges. We can give our talents to creating
weapons of annihilation, as so many scientists have
done, or we can work to find solutions to humanities
greatest problems. Our orientation is found not
only in our acts, but also in the policies we support
or oppose.
-- David
Krieger
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We must work toward the elimination of all nuclear
weapons, and an end to policies which cause this
country to move toward the weaponization of space.
-- Dennis
Kucinich
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As
citizen-activists the world over merge, they can
become an irresistible force to create peace and
protect the planet. From here will come a new movement
to abolish nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass
destruction. From here will come the demand for
sustainable communities, for new systems of energy,
transportation and commerce. From here comes the
future rushing in on us. How does one acquire the
capacity for active citizenship? The opportunities
exist every day...Active citizenship begins with
an envisioning of the desired outcome and a conscious
application of spiritual principles.
--
Dennis
Kucinich
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We
cannot by ourselves reduce the number of nuclear
weapons in the world, but we are doing what has
to be done all over the world if those weapons are
one day to be eliminated. We will not contemplate
any circumstance in which their possession or threatened
use is justified. We reject the secrecy and hypocrisy
which surrounds the continuing refinement of the
technology.
-- David
Lange
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Our
nuclear free status is a statement of our belief
that we and our fellow human beings can build the
institutions which will one day allow us all to
renounce the weapons of mass destruction. We are
a small country and what we can do is limited. But
in this as in every other great issue, we have to
start somewhere.
--
David
Lange
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Kids
can't see us bombing, and then listen to us talking
about getting guns out of the schools. How can we
tell them to solve problems without violence, if,
in fact, we can't show an ability to solve problems
without violence?
-- Barbara
Lee |
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Every adult in the world has some sense that he
or she might be obliterated at any time by these
weapons that we have created.
--
Robert
Jay Lifton
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"We physicians have focused on the nuclear threat
as the singular issue of our era. We are not indifferent
to other human rights and hard-won civil liberties.
But first we must be able to bequeath to our children
the most fundamental of all rights, which preconditions
all others; the right to survival.
--
Bernard
Lown
As
long as we rationalize nuclear weapons as “necessary”
in order to save American lives, then nuclear
weapons will never be gotten rid of.
--
Bernard
Lown
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The big powers are traveling on the dangerous road
of armament. The signpost just ahead of us is 'Oblivion.'
Can the march on this road be stopped? Yes, if public
opinion uses the power it now has.
-- Sean
MacBride
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The
students I've been with these twenty years are
looking for a world where it becomes a little
easier to love and a lot harder to hate, where
learning nonviolence means that we dedicate our
hearts, minds, time, and money to a commitment
that the force of love, the force of truth, the
force of justice, and the force of organized resistance
to corrupt power are seen as sane and the force
of fists, guns, armies, and bombs insane.
-- Colman
McCarthy
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Long live all us crazy soldiers
Who were born under calico skies
May we never be called to handle
All the weapons of war we despise
-- Paul
McCartney |
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The
cause of Peace has had my share of efforts, taking
the ultra non-resistance ground - that a Christian
cannot consistently uphold, and actively support,
a government based on the sword, or whose ultimate
resort is to the destroying weapons.
-- Lucretia
Mott
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I agree with the many who consider freezing all
sorts of weapons systems a first step in a realistic
disarmament policy.
-- Alva
Myrdal
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More
must be done in concrete terms in order to promote the
cause of disarmament.
-- Alva
Myrdal
The
smaller nations can in fact exercise greater influence
on disarmament negotiations than they have hitherto done.
-- Alva
Myrdal
Because
war and preparations for war have acquired legitimacy,
and because of the tremendous proliferation of arms through
production and export, so that they are now available
more or less to all and sundry, right down to handguns
and stilettos, the cult of violence has by now so permeated
relations between people that we are compelled to witness
as well an increase in everyday violence.
-- Alva
Myrdal
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In
less than a century we experienced great movement.
The youth movement! The labor movement! The civil
rights movement! The peace movement! The solidarity
movement! The women's movement! The disability movement!
The disarmament movement! The gay rights movement!
The environmental movement! Movement! Transformation!
Is there any reason to believe we are done?
-- Holly
Near
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In
the age when the atom has been split, the moon encircled,
diseases conquered, is disarmament so difficult a
matter that it must remain a distant dream?
-- Philip
Noel-Baker |
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The sheer folly of trying to defend a nation by
destroying all life on the planet must be apparent
to anyone capable of rational thought. Nuclear capability
must be reduced to zero, globally, permanently.
There is no other option.
-- Queen
Noor of Jordan
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I
believe in keeping guns out of our inner cities,
and that our leaders must say so in the face of
the gun manfuacturer's lobby. But I also believe
that when a gangbanger shoots indiscriminately into
a crowd because he feels someone disrespected him,
we have a problem of morality. Not only do we need
to punish that man for his crime, but we need to
acknowledge that there's a hole in his heart, one
that government programs alone may not be able to
repair.
-- Barack
Obama
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The single biggest threat that we face is a nuclear
weapon or some weapon of mass destruction. What
that means is that we have to be extraordinarily
aggressive and vigilant in controlling nuclear proliferation.
-- Barack
Obama
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"What is wrong with keeping guns out of the hands
of the wrong people?"
-- Gregory
Peck
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When
distrust exists between governments, when there
is a danger of war, they will not be willing to
disarm even when logic indicates that disarmament
would not affect military security at all.
-- Ludwig
Quidde
Time
and time again we have experienced efforts directed
toward this popular and simple concept of securing
peace by means of disarmament.
-- Ludwig
Quidde
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Disarmament or limitation of armaments, which depends
on the progress made on security, also contributes
to the maintenance of peace.
-- Ludwig
Quidde
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Lightly
armed nations can move toward war just as easily as those
which are armed to the teeth, and they will do so if the
usual causes of war are not removed.
-- Ludwig
Quidde
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Land
mines, torture equipment, cluster bombs, chemical
weapons are weapons designed to inflict pain and
death on human beings. Most victims are civilians,
women and children. How can arms manufacturers,
weapons designers, plant managers, politicians,
who have families of their own whom they love, be
so insensitive when it comes to the suffering of
other human beings?
-- José
Ramos-Horta
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Extending
social and economic development throughout the world
and eliminating nuclear weapons from military arsenals
are two fundamental prerequisites to replacing the
culture of war with a culture of peace, and building
true security for all the world's people.
-- Douglas
Roche
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Moral
disarmament is to safeguard the future; material disarmament
is to save for the present, that there may be a future
to safeguard.
-Elihu Root
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*
"Nuclear disarmament is not just an ardent
desire of the people, as expressed in many resolutions
of the United Nations. It is a legal commitment
... for the sake of humanity - we must get rid of
all nuclear weapons."
-- Joseph
Rotblat
Indeed,
the very first resolution of the General Assembly
of the United Nations - adopted unanimously - called
for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
-- Joseph
Rotblat
|
*
If you are religious, then remember that this bomb
is man's challenge to God. It's worded quite simply:
We have the power to destroy everything you have created.
If you're not religious, then look at it this way.
This world of ours is four thousand, six hundred million
years old. It could end in an afternoon.
-- Arundhati
Roy |
 |
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*
" This
idea of weapons of mass extermination is utterly
horrible and is something which no one with one
spark of humanity can tolerate.
-- Bertrand
Russell
|
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*
Except for fools and madmen, everyone knows that
nuclear war would he an unprecedented human catastrophe.
-- Carl
Sagan
|
It
is now almost 40 years since the invention of nuclear
weapons. We have not yet experienced a global thermonuclear
war -- although on more than one occasion we have come
tremulously close. I do not think our luck can hold forever.
Men and machines are fallible, as recent events remind
us. Fools and madmen do exist, and sometimes rise to power.
Concentrating always on the near future, we have ignored
the long-term consequences of our actions. We have placed
our civilization and our species in jeopardy. Fortunately,
it is not yet too late. We can safeguard the planetary
civilization and the human family if we so choose. There
is no more important or more urgent issue.
-- Carl
Sagan
 |
*
The use of a mere dozen nuclear weapons ... would
be a human catastrophe without parallel. ... Because
so few weapons can kill so many people, even far-reaching
disarmament proposals would leave us implicated in
plans for unprecedented slaughter of innocent people.
The sole measure that can free us from this burden
is abolition.
-- Jonathan
Schell |
*
preparedness for war is an incentive to war, and the
only hope of permanent peace is the systematic and
scientific disarmament of all the nations of the world
-- Anna
Howard Shaw |
 |
 |
*
When I was growing up, it was 'Communists'. Now it's
'Terrorists'. So you always have to have somebody
to fight and be afraid of, so the war machine can
build more bombs, guns, and bullets and everything.
-- Cindy
Sheehan |
*
We are the generation that brought the bomb in. We
have got to be the generation that should take it
out.
-- Martin
Sheen |
|
|
*
In the long run the purpose is to form a new security
system in a world when nobody goes hungry because
we spend money on armaments.
-- Inga
Thorsson
|
The
situation of the world around us can be painted in a picture
of the darkest possible colours. On one hand, the arms
race absorbs for deadly purposes 40 million dollars every
24 hours. On the other hand, immeasurable poverty affects
the lives of three-quarters of the men, women and children
in the world around us. The efforts for disarmament must
therefore be an inextricable part of the efforts to solve
the common problems of our time, problems which ultimately
involve our very survival, the possibility to continue
the human experiment."
--
Inga
Thorsson
We
have now reached the stage where disarmament alone, although
an absolute necessity, is not enough. The stockpiles of
arms are in themselves a mortal threat to mankind but
there are also other threats to our existence.Disarmament
for peace is not sufficient: it must be supported by development
for peace.
-- Inga
Thorsson
"On the collective level, we have unwittingly shifted
from being a nation of liberators, defenders of freedom,
into becoming a nation of arms dealers and mercenaries,
fabricating our own weapons of mass destruction and
arming tyrants with the tools to oppress their own
people. Within our own society, we jail more prisoners
than any other country in the world, 85 percent of
them people of nonwhite races — red, black, brown,
and yellow. We are one of the few nations that still
indulge in the death penalty for increasing numbers
of these prisoners. We must become mindful of these
negative things, since we need not support these actions
of our nation to be affected negatively by their evolutionary
impact, unless we mentally, verbally, and ultimately
physically, disassociate ourselves from them."
-- Robert
Thurman |
 |
|
*
Universal peace education, the concept of peace
as a human right, and yes, the abolition of
nuclear weapons are all sound and achievable objectives
to which every person can contribute their energies.
--
Barbara
Valocore
|
|
We
do not believe that a nuclear war should be fought
and we do not believe that a nuclear war can be
won.
-- Atal
Bihari Vajpayee
|
|
*
The main reason we are held hostage by the most
destructive technology on earth is simple: the complete
lack of international resolve to ban nuclear weapons
and banish them from the arsenals of the world.
--
Christopher
Weeramantry
But
elimination will only happen if all countries —
nuclear and non-nuclear states — genuinely work
towards this result. Nuclear states must abolish
their arsenals, as was indicated by the unanimous
opinion of the international Court of Justice, the
highest international tribunal. The five nuclear
states seem to expect others to refrain from obtaining
bombs while at the same time maintaining their own
caches of deadly weapons.
-- Christopher
Weeramantry
*
The creation of a nuclear weapons convention is
not only achievable, it is imperative if civilisation
is to survive.
-- Christopher
Weeramantry
|
|
|
*
War and the preparation for war rob resources from
human security. As long as we honour war and warriors
we maintain fear and hate, always based on ignorance;
and fear is the enemy of learning, it gives ignorance
its power. As long as we misplace money for weapons
– we keep water polluted, we keep far too many women
illiterate and unskilled, we prevent health care
and education from being universally enjoyed – we
promote poverty. These are among the root causes
of violent conflict.
-- Cora
Weiss
|
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|
*
"We're trying to protect these communities from
our own weapons of mass destruction. We didn't have
to go to Iraq to find these things. They're right
here."
-- Craig
Williams
|
*
The
Second Amendment says we have the right to bear arms,
not to bear artillery.”
-- Robin
Williams |
 |
 |
*
The question of armaments, whether on land or sea,
is the most immediately and intensely practical
question connected with the future fortunes of nations
and of mankind.
-- Woodrow
Wilson
|
|
This
is our message – killing is wrong. Mass killing
is wrong. Threatening mass destruction is a denial
of our own humanity and is suicidal. When something
is wrong we have to stop it. Dismantling the machinery
of destruction is thus a practical act of love that
we can all join in. Please join us – together we
are unstoppable.
-- Angie
Zelter
|
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*
"We need to rethink our position in the world. We
need to stop sending weapons to countries that oppress
other people. We need to decide that we will not
go to war, whatever reason is conjured up by the
politicians or the media, because war in our time
is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents,
a war against children. War is terrorism, magnified
a hundred times."
-- Howard
Zinn
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