Articles 
20 FEB 2016
PEOPLE FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
NO UNSC RESOLUTION, NO SANCTIONS PLANNED AS US LAUNCHES GAURANTEED – LETHAL ICBM FROM VANDENBERG AIRFORCE BASE ON EVE OF UN NUKE DISARMAMENT MEETING
The US plans to launch an unarmed (for now) Minuteman-III ICBM from Vandenberg Air-force Base tomorrow (20Feb), on the eve of a preliminary meeting of the United Nations Open-Ended Working Group on nuclear Disarmament. (OEWG). The Minuteman-III ICBM is purely military and has no role in space exploration or satellite launches.
The Open-Ended Working Group was created to chart a way to the elimination of nuclear weapons, including the possible creation of a nuclear weapons ban as well as other legal mechanisms aimed at eliminating nuclear weapons. The OEWG comes just as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Doomsday Clock indicates that the danger of the destruction of civilization from nuclear weapons use is as great or greater than it was during the cold war.
When the DPRK launched what seems to have definitely been a satellite space launch rather than a purely military ICBM, a couple of weeks back there were UNSC resolutions and sanctions.
Yet the launch of an unambiguously military ICBM from Vandenberg tomorrow will doubtless attract absolutely no attention at all apart from a predictable tiny crowd of dedicated protestors.
The hypocrisy and double-standard is breathtaking.
John Hallam
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