January 25, 2018

It is time to sound an alarm, and the Union of Concerned Scientists just did:

This morning George Schultz, Reagan's Secretary of State, met before the Senate Armed Services Committee. (Schultz is 97.) Asked by Senator Jean Shaheen about the development of "small" nuclear arms here and overseas, Schultz took off:

A nuclear weapon is a nuclear weapon. You use a small one; then you go to a bigger one. Nuclear weapons are nuclear weapons, and we need to draw the line there. One of the alarming things to me is this notion we can have something called a small nuclear weapon, which I understand the Russians are doing, and somehow that is usable. Your mind goes to the idea that nuclear weapons become usable, and then we are really in trouble because a big nuclear -- can wipe out the world. I have a great friend in San Francisco, William Swing, the retired Episcopal Bishop of California, and he started something terrific called United Religion Initiative. He made a statement about a year ago. I tried to get him to publish it, but he would not do it. He said

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When you put your hand on the Bible and swear to be President of the United States, that is the least of it. When you put your hand on the nuclear button, and you can start something that might kill a million people, you are not president anymore. You are God. And who are we to say we are God?

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These weapons are immoral, as President Reagan said many times. And we need to get rid of them.

This goes so far in the face of everything Donald Trump has said about nuclear weapons, it isn't a subtle suggestion.

Trump shouldn't play God with nukes. Period.

And we are more dangerous with him as the so-called president than we have been in decades.

The doomsday clock is ticking.

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