Prominent U.S. Physicists Send Warning Letter to President Bush
- From: periodistalibre@xxxxxxx
- Date: 18 Apr 2006 16:33:11 -0700
By Newswise --
04/18/06 "Newswise" - Thirteen of the nation's most prominent
physicists have written a letter to President Bush, calling U.S. plans
to reportedly use nuclear weapons against Iran "gravely
irresponsible" and warning that such action would have "disastrous
consequences for the security of the United States and the world."
The physicists include five Nobel laureates, a recipient of the
National Medal of Science and three past presidents of the American
Physical Society, the nation's preeminent professional society for
physicists.
Their letter was prompted by recent articles in the Washington Post,
New Yorker and other publications that one of the options being
considered by Pentagon planners and the White House in a military
confrontation with Iran includes the use of nuclear bunker busters
against underground facilities. These reports were neither confirmed
nor denied by White House and Pentagon officials.
The letter was initiated by Jorge Hirsch, a professor of physics at the
University of California, San Diego, who last fall put together a
petition signed by more than 1,800 physicists that repudiated new U.S.
nuclear weapons policies that include preemptive use of nuclear weapons
against non-nuclear adversaries (http://physics.ucsd.edu/petition/).
Hirsch has also published 15 articles in recent months
(http://antiwar.com/hirsch/) documenting the dangers associated with a
potential U.S. nuclear strike on Iran.
"We are members of the profession that brought nuclear weapons into
existence, and we feel strongly that it is our professional duty to
contribute our efforts to prevent their misuse," says Hirsch.
"Physicists know best about the devastating effects of the weapons they
created, and these eminent physicists speak for thousands of our
colleagues."
"The fact that the existence of this plan has not been denied by the
Administration should be a cause of great alarm, even if it is only one
of several plans being considered," he adds. "The public should
join these eminent scientists in demanding that the Administration
publicly renounces such a misbegotten option against a non-nuclear
country like Iran."
The letter, which is available at
http://physics.ucsd.edu/petition/physicistsletter.html, points out that
"nuclear weapons are unique among weapons of mass destruction," and
that nuclear weapons in today's arsenals have a total power of more
than 200,000 times the explosive energy of the bomb that leveled
Hiroshima, which caused the deaths of more than 100,000 people.
It notes that there are no sharp lines between small and large nuclear
weapons, nor between nuclear weapons targeting facilities and those
targeting armies or cities, and that the use by the United States of
nuclear weapons after 60 years of non-use will make the use of nuclear
weapons by others more likely.
"Once the U.S. uses a nuclear weapon again, it will heighten the
probability that others will too," the physicists write. "In a
world with many more nuclear nations and no longer a 'taboo'
against the use of nuclear weapons, there will be a greatly enhanced
risk that regional conflicts could expand into global nuclear war, with
the potential to destroy our civilization."
The letter echoes the main objection of last fall's physicists'
petition, stressing that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty will be
irreversibly damaged by the use or even the threat of use of nuclear
weapons by a nuclear nation against a non-nuclear one, with disastrous
consequences for the security of the United States and the world.
"It is gravely irresponsible for the U.S. as the greatest superpower
to consider courses of action that could eventually lead to the
widespread destruction of life on the planet. We urge the
administration to announce publicly that it is taking the nuclear
option off the table in the case of all non-nuclear adversaries,
present or future, and we urge the American people to make their voices
heard on this matter."
The 13 physicists who coauthored the letter are: Philip Anderson,
professor of physics at Princeton University and Nobel Laureate in
Physics; Michael Fisher, professor of physics at the Institute for
Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland and Wolf
Laureate in Physics; David Gross, professor of theoretical physics and
director of the Kavli Institute of Physics at the University of
California, Santa Barbara and Nobel Laureate in Physics; Jorge Hirsch,
professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego; Leo
Kadanoff, professor of physics and mathematics at the University of
Chicago and recipient of the National Medal of Science; Joel Lebowitz,
professor of mathematics and physics, Rutgers, The State University of
New Jersey and Boltzmann Medalist; Anthony Leggett, professor of
physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Nobel Laureate,
Physics; Eugen Merzbacher, professor of physics, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill and former president, American Physical
Society; Douglas Osheroff, professor of physics and applied physics,
Stanford University and Nobel Laureate, Physics; Andrew Sessler, former
director of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and former president, American
Physical Society; George Trilling, professor of physics, University of
California, Berkeley, and former president, American Physical Society;
Frank Wilczek, professor of physics, MIT and Nobel Laureate, Physics;
Edward Witten, professor of physics, Institute for Advanced Study and
Fields Medalist.
The physicists are sending copies of their letter to their elected
representatives, requesting that the issue be urgently addressed in the
U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
.
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