Hillary Rodham Clinton and Donald J. Trump: Commit to No First Use of Nuclear weapons!

One person shouldn’t have the power to end the world.

The President alone holds the key to the U.S. nuclear arsenal and has the unchecked authority to launch these weapons. That is a problem no matter who is in the Oval Office because there is too much risk that the President will make a wrong and ultimately deadly decision.

The United States has possessed nuclear weapons for 71 years and is the only nation to have used nuclear weapons first in war. Today, nuclear weapons are 10-20 times more powerful than the ones dropped on Japan during World War II. Any scope of nuclear war would cause unimaginable human suffering and planet-wide destruction. For these reasons, a nuclear attack must never happen again.

One way to constrain the president’s nuclear launch authority and minimize the risk of nuclear attack would be through a “No First Use” policy. This policy would make it clear that that the United States would never use nuclear weapons first against another country.

A No First Use policy would strengthen our national security by reducing the risk of launching nuclear weapons by accident or miscalculation.

President Obama has little time left in office, but the perils of U.S. nuclear weapons will remain through the next administration. The Presidential candidates, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Donald J. Trump, must pledge that they would never authorize a first strike with America’s nuclear arsenal. They should take a pledge of No First Use.

Articles for Reference:

• New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/opinion/end-the-first-use-policy-for-nuclear-weapons.html?_r=2
• Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erica-fein/trump-and-clinton-could-d_b_11652498.html?
• Defense One: http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2016/08/obamas-last-chance-terminate-us-nuclear-policy-thanks-trump/130762
• Survey Data: https://today.yougov.com/news/2016/08/11/poll-results-nuclear-weapons/
• Wall Street Journal: http://www.wsj.com/video/obama-considers-nuclear-no-first-use-policy/C115A6D5-79B5-4B2B-B1B3-1CF9D29CFCF4.html
• The Case for No First Use: https://fsi.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/51-3_12_Sagan_author_proof.pdf