It's time to get US nukes out of Europe
- By Richard Branson -
- May 17, 2012
20 years after the Cold War, NATO still has 200 US nukes in Europe. It’s time we got the world back on track to zero nuclear weapons.
As a founding member of the board of Global Zero, an international movement aiming for a world without nukes, we have done a lot of research into the nuclear weapon issue. The evidence is overwhelming that nukes are dangerous, useless and expensive. What’s more, by removing nukes from Europe we could clear the road for the US and Russia to agree on unprecedented cuts to their arsenals, which now represent more than 90% of the nuclear weapons on the planet.
President Obama, who endorses Global Zero, has declared abolition of these weapons to be a long-term policy goal for the US. Some progress has been made so far, but – as a former commander of the United States’ nuclear forces said in the New York Times this week - the US must push ahead with further cuts.
On May 20th, world leaders will meet at the NATO Summit in Chicago, where the future of hundreds of US nuclear weapons deployed in Europe is on the agenda.
It's time to get these relics of a bygone age out of Europe, and we can all help make it happen. Sign Global Zero’s NukesOut petition to urge the leaders of NATO countries to get nukes out of Europe.
By Richard Branson. Founder of Virgin Group
