News   /   Interviews   /   Interviews

US snubs nuclear arms control due to enmity with Russia: US activist

The United States is rejecting international efforts at nuclear arms control in line with its hostility towards Russia, says antiwar activist Joe Iosbaker.

The United States is rejecting international efforts at nuclear arms control in line with its hostility towards Russia, an American activist says.

Joe Iosbaker, a leader of the United National Antiwar Coalition, made the comments in an interview with Press TV on Thursday following a former US nuclear commander’s warning of a nuclear disaster if the US and Russia don’t take their nuclear-laden missiles off high alert.

Retired four-star General James Cartwright said in an interview published by POLITICO on Thursday that “de-alerting” nuclear arsenals could reduce the risk of firing nuclear weapons in response to a false warning of an attack.

“I agree that taking nuclear weapons off high alert is a good idea,” said Iosbaker. “Washington claims for itself that it has the right to use nuclear weapons when it feels threatened.”

“The US is the only country on earth that has used nuclear weapons. Two bombs were dropped on Japan, in fact on cities that were not military targets, killing hundreds of thousands. And of course it was militarily unnecessary. The Japanese were already preparing to surrender, which President [Harry s.]Truman knew,” he stated.

The US bombed the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima with nuclear weapons during World War II in 1944. Over 250,000 people died in both attacks and hundreds of thousands were directly impacted by the nuclear explosions.

Iosbaker said that even in today’s world the US remains the main danger to world peace and “it’s simply not true that Russia and the US share that status.”

The US has, in the past, repeatedly accused Russia of violating international treaties, while it moves on with plans to increase its military presence along with NATO troop near the Russian border under different political guises.

More recently, analysts pointed to Washington’s provocative military measures near Russia’s border over the crisis in Ukraine.

“It’s the US and its junior partners in NATO that has military action on Russia’s border, and it’s the US’ asset in the Middle East, Israel, with hundreds of nuclear weapons of its own that’s waging a war on the people of Gaza as part of its occupation of Palestine,” Iosbaker noted.

The US holds the world's biggest nuclear arsenal giving it the capability to destroy the entire world several times over.

HDS/HRJ


Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Press TV News Roku