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Groups demand nuclear missile program to be replaced with economic plan for ICBM communities – Daily Montanan

['Darrell Ehrlick', 'More From Author', '- January']

Date: 2022-01-12 00:00:00

More than 60 regional and national organization are calling on Congress and President Joe Biden to end the ground-based nuclear defense program, part of which is housed in Montana, while also calling for a federal spending plan that would overhaul or transform the affected military communities.

Until now, rootsaction.org organizer Norman Solomon said the debate about the missiles has taken one of two paths, either calling for the elimination of the nuclear arms altogether or replacing them with a newer, next-generation of missiles. Instead, the organizations are calling for the elimination of the missiles in places like Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota, but not without funding a long-term economic plan that doesn’t leave communities like Great Falls without its primary economic engine.

The groups say just having more than 400 missiles in the ground, spread throughout interior states like Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Colorado and Nebraska increases the chance of an accidental nuclear war. Moreover, Solomon said that because those weapons are stationery, they’re of limited value in case of an attack.

“ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) certainly waste billions of dollars, but what makes them unique is the threat that they pose to all of humanity,” said a statement signed by the group.

Solomon said what makes this appeal different is that it simultaneously calls for some economic plan to help the missile communities to transform, not just a demand to stop the missile program.

“Closure of those ICBM facilities should be accompanied by major public investment to subsidize transition costs and provide well-paying jobs that are productive for the long-term economic prosperity of affected communities,” the statement reads in part.

“That part gets lost in Washington,” Solomon said.

He said the notion of shuttering the program and replacing it with something equally viable should appeal to Montanans who may be offended by the theory behind why the nuclear arms were put in the ground in the first place – the so-called “nuclear sponge” theory. That notion holds that in the event of a nuclear attack, America’s enemies would have to target the ground-based missiles in places like Montana first, allowing the land to be a sponge to absorb the attacks, rather than missiles sent to more urban coastal areas.

However, while the other two parts of the United States’ nuclear arsenal include submarines and airplanes, those can be moved around, making it almost impossible for them to be detected or neutralized. Those other two defense systems in the air and in the sea, Solomon said, are plenty sufficient in case of a nuclear war. He said that having ground missiles that are always just minutes away from being launched is a liability with far too great of risk.

“The debate between a new (defense missile system) and updating the Minutemen III in some ways is ridiculous because the debate makes no difference to the safety of the world,” Solomon said. “I wish (Sen.) Jon Tester would channel his inner Mike Mansfield and cut the spigot on these just like Mansfield stopped the spending in Vietnam.”

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