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TRADE RESOURCE CENTER
CURRENT
UPDATES: April 29, 2005
Dear Friends,
This is our first email update in too long. And it is a short one. Included are links to resources to get you ready for the Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference starting Monday at the UN, a short report on how images of the coffins of fallen soldiers became public, some notes on the new budget, and a special treat for the un-faint of heart and very cynical.
In this update:
I. NUKES IN MAY
II. IMAGES OF AMERICANS KILLED IN WAR FINALLY PUBLIC
III. BUDGET BLUDGEONS POOR
IV. PICTURE OF THE WEEK
I. NUKES IN MAY
There is something yucky fouling up the lovely spring air-- its nukes nukes nukes. Scanning Friday’s New York Times, we found three nuclear-related articles. Ponder these headlines:
North Korea Reactor Shutdown Problematic, U.S. Says
Iran Warns May Restart Nuclear Work if EU Dallies
U.S. Aide Sees Nuclear Arms Advance by North Korea
All of this, and Congress has just signed off on Bush’s request for $6.63 in Nuclear Weapons Activities for 2006.
Good thing organizations like United for Peace and Justice and Abolition 2000 have teamed up for a big demonstration in New York City to say NO NUKES! NO WARS! To learn more about anti-nuclear May Day activities, visit www.unitedforpeace.org
The demonstration will send a clear message as diplomats from around the world convene for the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference at the United Nations the next day, May 2nd. Throughout the three week series of meetings, the anti-nuclear non-governmental presence will be strong. A full schedule of activities, from conferences to prayer breakfasts, is available online at www.reachingcriticalwill.org
RESOURCES:
1. WAR IS PEACE, ARMS RACING IS DISARMAMENT
Western States Legal Foundation
"Thirty five years after the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entered into force, nuclear weapons remain a profound threat to our future as a species. Despite the promise made by the original nuclear weapons states in Article VI of the Treaty to negotiate for the elimination of their nuclear arsenals, tens of thousands of nuclear weapons remain.
"The current U.S. nuclear stockpile is estimated at over 10,000 warheads. Of these, approximately 5,300 are operational, including 4,350 strategic and 780 non-strategic warheads. A significant number of these stand ready for use within minutes, capable of wreaking unimaginable destruction anywhere on earth.
"Nonetheless, the United States claims that it is "is fully meeting its obligations under Article VI," pointing to the deactivation of excess Cold War nuclear weapons and delivery systems. This stance ignores the irrational factors that drove Cold War superpower arsenals to extreme and unsustainable levels, and downplays the central role that nuclear weapons continue to play in the U.S. pursuit of global military dominance."
To read the full report, visit www.wslfweb.org
2. AMERICA’S ONE-NATION ARMS RACE
An Analysis of the Department of Energy’s FY 2006 Budget Request for Nuclear Weapons Activities, by Dr. Robert Civiak, Tri-Valley CAREs www.trivalleycares.org
II. IMAGES OF AMERICANS KILLED IN WAR FINALLY PUBLIC
The Pentagon finally released 360 photographs of coffins of soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. But these images, taken by military photographers, are not public because the Pentagon finally decided that the American people have the right to see them. No, these somber glimpses of life and death in war are public due to the efforts of a University of Delaware professor names Ralph Begleiter.
As Begleiter said in a press release, "This is an important victory for the American people, for the families of troops killed in the line of duty during wartime, and for the honor of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country." The former CNN Washington correspondent, who teaches journalism and political science at the University of Delaware, continued that the Pentagon’s decision "should make it difficult, if not impossible, for any U.S. government in the future to hide the human cost of war from the American people."
RESOURCES
1. RETURN OF THE FALLEN
Pentagon Releases Hundreds More War Casualty Homecoming Images
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 152, April 28, 2005
www.gwu.edu
III. BUDGET BLUDGEONS POOR
On Thursday, Congress passed a five-year, $14 trillion budget last night, paving the way for oil drilling in parts of an Alaskan wildlife refuge, a new round of tax cuts and the first curbs on entitlements for the poor in nearly a decade.
According to Robert Greenstein, the Executive Director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the new budget "increases the deficit and pairs more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans with cuts in programs for the neediest and most vulnerable of our citizens."
CBPP’s close reading of the budget finds $35 billion in cuts; mostly from programs for the poor like Medicaid, which provides health care for poor families and individuals, and Food Stamps, and they assert that a "sizable portion of the budget’s $212 billion in cuts over five years… would be likely to come from programs that serve those with low incomes."
This budget chooses guns over butter in a big way. The Washington Post reports that defense spending jumps in 2006 from $422 billion to $439 billion from, not including the billions that are allocated through emergency spending bills to underwrite military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In a new report about the 2006 budget, Greenstein comments that "the country would be better off with no budget plan than with this one… deficits would be lower, and cuts in programs for the needy wouldn't be imposed to pay for more tax cuts for the wealthiest." Read CBPP’s full report online at www.cbpp.org
RESOURCES
To get a closer look at the guns side of the budget, visit the Center for Arms Control and Non Proliferation to read their analysis of where the money goes:
1. Highlights of the FY'06 Budget Request -- www.armscontrolcenter.org
2. Facts about Supplemental Spending for Non-Emergency Pentagon Programs -- www.armscontrolcenter.org
IV. PICTURE OF THE WEEK
If only we could send you the picture!! Defense Secretary Rumsfeld flanked by Spiderman and Captain America…. Yep. And Rumsfeld is flexing his muscles.
On Thursday, deep below the ground, in the Pentagon’s mini-mall, Rumsfeld, Spiderman and Captain America came together to launch a new Marvel comic book for American troops.
The "Support Our Troops" comic book stars the New Avengers and the Fantastic Four in a Defense Department campaign called "America Supports You" aimed at U.S. soldiers. One million copies will be distributed to service members in the United States and overseas. They will not be sold or available to the public like a normal comic.
But, as Hanna Rosin writes in the Washington Post, maybe "Rumsfeld is finally ready to admit that only a superhero can extricate us from Iraq."
"Pure escapism," Marvel executive Robert Sabouni told the Washington Post.
"A touch of home," added Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense.
We have yet to get our hands on a copy of the comic, but according to news reports, the story opens with some soldiers who stumble on a UFO-looking ship and call for help. Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic, the two scientist-superheroes, show up. They pry open the ship to find hostile aliens inside, and then the fights and explosions and thwacks begin.
A. AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU -- www.americasupportsyou.mil
B. THE PHOTO OF SUPERHERO RUMSFELD -- www.washingtonpost.com (log in required) or email berrigaf@newschool.edu for a jpeg file version.
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