What President Biden Needs to Do

 Following is a beginning checklist that President Biden needs to do on nuclear weapons-related issues:

1. Extend the New START Treaty with Russia to limit the deployed nuclear weapons and delivery systems to 1,550 and 700 respectively. President Biden and Russian President Putin reached an agreement to unconditionally extend the treaty for the full five years. Now the presidents can negotiate reductions. 

2. Re-enter the Iran Nuclear Deal. It was working before Trump abandoned it.

3. Scrap plans for a new generation of nuclear weapons at an unaffordable cost of $1.7 trillion.

4. Renounce the option of using nuclear weapons first. Congress should pass "No First Use" (NFU) legislation. Senator Debbie Stabenow should continue her co-sponsorship of NFU.

5. President Biden should declare that he does not have the authority to launch nuclear weapons, because only Congress can declare war.

6. Take U.S. nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert to avoid human mistakes and political miscalculations.

7. Embrace the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) that made nuclear bombs illegal on January 22, 2021.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force on January 22, as 52 countries have signed it. Now, nuclear weapons are illegal under international law, and nations who have them, develop them, use them, or even threaten to use them, are breaking the law. Sadly, none of the nine nuclear powers are on board with the TPNW.

The TPNW can eventually lead to the elimination of all nuclear weapons. There is no greater, immediate threat to our very existence than nuclear weapons. And now they are banned. The Treaty puts nuclear weapons in the same category as land mines, chemical weapons, and poison gas. 

The Pentagon's investments in fighting and foolishly trying to win a nuclear war should be halted. The U.S. should actively negotiate with the other nuclear-armed states for a verifiable, enforceable agreement to dismantle the almost 14,000 nuclear warheads that still remain.

These are not new ideas. In 1970, all of the five nuclear powers agreed to eliminate their nuclear arms in exchange for other nations forgoing the development of such weapons. But the nuclear powers refused to give up their enormous power, and bowed to their military-industrial- political powers. The "good faith" negotiations have never occurred.

Although there are nine nuclear-armed powers today, the rest of the world has said, "Enough! Enough of this terror!"