U.S. Wants More “Usable” Nuclear Weapons in Europe

The United States keeps nuclear weapons in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Turkey, in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which bans the transfer of nuclear weapons from a nuclear weapon state to a non-nuclear weapon state. Now, the U.S. wants to upgrade its nukes in Europe, to make them “precision” and “guided,” and therefore more likely to be used, even as tensions build between the United States and Russia.

The U.S. plans to deploy newly designed type B 61-12 nuclear bombs. Instead it should remove existing nuclear bombs. The NATO strategy of so-called “nuclear sharing” is a violation of Articles 1 and 2 of the NPT. Those provisions state that every party to the treaty promises “not to transfer to any recipient whatsoever nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or control over such weapons or explosive devices directly, or indirectly” and also promises that every “non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty undertakes not to receive the transfer from any transferor whatsoever of nuclear weapons.”

The policy of placing U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe also violates local laws. For example, the German Parliament (the Bundestag) voted in March 2010, by a large majority, that the German Government should “press for the withdrawal of U.S. nuclear weapons from Germany.”

People in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Turkey, the United States, and elsewhere have signed this petition:

To: The Governments of Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Turkey

Do not upgrade the U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe. Remove them. People in the United States and around the world would support you in this.

INITIAL SIGNERS:
David Swanson
Norman Solomon
Alice Slater
Lindsey German
Hugo Lueders
Fabio D’Alessandro
Robert Fantina
Agneta Norberg
Toby Blome
Ann Suellentrop
Heinrich Buecker
David Krieger
Cynthia Cockburn
Helen Caldicott
Coleen Rowley
Ellen Thomas
Megan Rice

The petition will be delivered in each country. Before it is, please add your name.

The same petition in German is here.