Nunn, joined by other U.S. statesmen, renewed their call for the abolition of nuclear weapons. They remind us that we are at a tipping point, and that the steps that we are taking now are not adequate.

“Trust but verify,” was President Reagan’s maxim. And, indeed there are existing plans for a verification process that could be put into place which would begin to pull us back from the brink of a nuclear accident.

Some steps are already in progress. Additional near-term steps, as outlined by veterans of the past six administrations at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution in October 2007, include:

• Take steps to increase the warning and decision for nuclear-armed ballistic missiles.
• Discard any existing operational plans for massive attacks.
• Cooperative multilateral ballistic missile defense (though I believe that all missile defense plans should be scrapped).
• Accelerate work to provide the enhanced security for nuclear weapons.
• Start a dialogue with NATO and Russia on increased security for forward-deployed nuclear weapons as a first step toward careful accounting for them and their eventual elimination.
• Strengthen the monitoring compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
• Adopts a process for bringing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treat (CTBT) into effect.

Every presidential candidate should publicly support this initiative.

Sally A. Breen
Windham, ME