The Terminator says "No Nukes!"
He's back! And now the Terminator wants to get rid of nuclear weapons.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has long been calling for action to address global warming. He's criticised President Bush's failed policies on climate change, even though he's a member of Bush's Republican Party.
Now the Terminator has a new target in mind - the abolition of nuclear weapons.
In an important speech on October 24, Schwarzenegger says we must urgently address the threat of nuclear weapons:
"I have advocated - and continue to advocate - action against global warming. I genuinely believe we must take steps to stop the destruction of the planet's environment. Looking at this logically, however - although we must address global warming now - its most dangerous consequences come decades down the road. The most dangerous consequences of nuclear weapons, however, are here and now. They are of this hour and time."
Schwarzenegger added: "A nuclear disaster will not hit at the speed of a glacier melting. It will hit with a blast. It will not hit with the speed of the atmosphere warming but of a city burning. Clearly, the attention focused on nuclear weapons should be as prominent as that of global climate change."
The California Governor is not the only American leader who has realised that, even after the end of the Cold War, nuclear weapons pose the greatest immediate threat to humanity.
Former Republican Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Schultz have called for "a world free of nuclear weapons", supported by former US Defence Secretary William Perry and Senator Sam Nunn, a long-serving head of the powerful Congressional Armed Services Committee.
Most of the Democratic candidates for the US Presidency, including Barack Obama, John Edwards, Dennis Kuchinich and Governor Bill Richardson, have spoken out on the need for countries to work together to dismantle nuclear arsenals. On October 2, Barack Obama said: "Here's what I'll say as President: America seeks a world in which there are no nuclear weapons."
Today, despite the end of the Cold War, there are still 27,000 nuclear weapons in the world and 4,000 of them are on hair-trigger alert, ready to be launched within minutes.
Earlier this year, the authoritative "Doomsday Clock" was moved forward to five minutes to midnight - the same threat level as at the height of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the world came closest to the brink of nuclear catastrophe.
A big question is, why are our own political leaders silent on this issue?
When Republicans join with Democrats to call for action on nuclear weapons, it signals a sea change in American politics. You know there's something going on when a hard-nosed veteran of global realpolitik like Henry Kissinger starts sounding like a peacenik: "We endorse setting the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons and working energetically on the actions required to achieve that goal."
As Schwarzenegger explained in his speech, it's time for action on nukes: "If you Google ‘global warming', you will find 6,690,000 entries. If you Google ‘Britney Spears,' you will find 2,490,000. If you Google ‘nuclear disarmament', you will get 116,000 entries. And if you Google ‘nuclear annihilation', you will get 17,400. Something is wrong with that picture."
Whoever wins the Australian election on November 24 is going to be dealing with a different America, a country moving beyond the failures of the Bush Administration. Americans are looking for vision and alternatives after the tragedies of Iraq and Hurricane Katrina, the failed hunt for Saddam's non-existent weapons of mass destruction, the bloated defence budget, the unsuccessful bullying and dangerous threats against Iran.
Over the next three weeks, Kevin Rudd and John Howard have the perfect platform to speak out on this issue. They can signal that Australia will be a serious player in international attempts to develop a Nuclear Weapons Convention - a binding international treaty to ban nuclear weapons.
Are they up to the challenge?
Dr. Bill Williams, Vice President of Medical Association for the Prevention of War (MAPW)
