Just hours after the conclusion of the International Day of Peace on September 21st, the United States conducted a test of an unarmed Minuteman III Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). The missile was launched in the early morning hours from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The US maintains 450 Minuteman III missiles armed with nuclear warheads on high alert at military sites in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming.
The Air Force has announced that it plans to test another Minuteman III missile in the early morning hours of September 26th. Later that same day in New York, the United Nations General Assembly will be holding its first-ever High-Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament.
These tests are acts of arrogance, actually hubris of the highest order. Instead of participating at the Presidential level in the UN High-Level Meeting, the US is sending its missiles flying. What kind of example of leadership is this from President Obama, a Nobel Peace Laureate who has eloquently stated that America has a “commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons”?
The US claims that these tests are important for allowing it to ensure a safe, secure and effective deterrent. Yet, the US government doesn’t see it that way when other nations conduct tests of nuclear-capable missiles. And US leaders fail to grasp that nuclear deterrence is little more than a hypothesis about human behavior that can fail catastrophically at any time.
In this time of continued economic tightening, when the Congress seeks to cut back on food stamps for those in need, do we really want the government to waste tens of millions of dollars on 30-minute muscle-flexing missile tests? In addition to the inability to assure that these weapons will not be used by accident or design, they are obscenely expensive and the funds used to maintain them could be far better used for meeting basic human needs.
The UN High-Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament offers an exceptional opportunity for US leadership. But will we grasp that opportunity? President Obama should call off the Minuteman III missile test scheduled for September 26th. He should personally attend the UN High-Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament where he can play a constructive role in moving the world toward zero nuclear weapons.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.