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US becoming a ‘death culture’ where government can’t protect its own people: Activist

Monday, 25 May 2020 5:51 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 26 May 2020 11:35 AM ]

Daniel Kovalik

The recent discussion by President Donald Trump's administration about holding a US nuclear test during the coronavirus pandemic is a dangerous policy that will lead to more needless death and destruction, an American human rights and peace activist says.

“This marks the beginning, quite possibly, of a new nuclear arms race,” said Daniel Kovalik, who teaches international human rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Starting a nuclear arms race “during a pandemic when the world should be focusing on health…is just insanity,” Kovalik told Press TV on Tuesday.

“The US is truly becoming a death culture where the government cannot protect its own people or won’t, but decides to pick a fight with the rest of the world,” he added.

The Trump administration discussed holding the first US nuclear test since 1992 as a potential warning to Russia and China, the Washington Post reported Friday.

Such a test would be a significant departure from US defense policy and dramatically up the ante for other nuclear-armed nations. Nuclear non-proliferation activists were quick to condemn the idea.

"It would be the starting gun to an unprecedented nuclear arms race," Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, told the Post.

The Washington Post report came one day after Trump announced that he plans to withdraw from the Open Skies treaty with Russia, which was designed to improve military transparency and confidence between the superpowers.

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“I don't see China or Russia, as acting provocatively towards the US or creating tensions with the US. The US is deciding to treat those two countries as adversaries and even as enemies, and again needlessly and dangerously,” Kovalik said.

It is not the first time Trump's defense policy has raised concerns the administration is elevating the risk of nuclear war.

In February the Pentagon announced it had deployed a submarine carrying a new long-range missile with a relatively small nuclear warhead, saying it was in response to Russian tests of similar weapons.

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