Prominent US Physicists Send Letter to President Bush.

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Prominent US Physicists Send Letter to President Bush By Kim McDonald Physorg.com Monday 17 April 2006 Thirteen of the nation's most prominent physicists have written a letterto President Bush, calling U.S. plans to reportedly use nuclear weaponsagainst Iran "gravely irresponsible" and warning that such action would have"disastrous consequences for the security of the United States and theworld." The physicists include five Nobel laureates, a recipient of the NationalMedal of Science and three past presidents of the American Physical Society,the nation's preeminent professional society for physicists. Their letter was prompted by recent articles in the Washington Post, NewYorker and other publications that one of the options being considered

byPentagon planners and the White House in a military confrontation with Iranincludes the use of nuclear bunker busters against underground facilities.These reports were neither confirmed nor denied by White House and Pentagonofficials. The letter was initiated by Jorge Hirsch, a professor of physics at theUniversity of California, San Diego, who last fall put together a petitionsigned by more than 1,800 physicists that repudiated new U.S. nuclearweapons policies that include preemptive use of nuclear weapons againstnon-nuclear adversaries . Hirsch has also published 15 articles in recentmonths documenting the dangers associated with a potential U.S. nuclearstrike on Iran. "We are members of the profession that brought nuclear weapons intoexistence, and we feel strongly that it is our professional duty tocontribute our efforts to prevent their misuse," says

Hirsch. "Physicistsknow best about the devastating effects of the weapons they created, andthese eminent physicists speak for thousands of our colleagues." "The fact that the existence of this plan has not been denied by theAdministration should be a cause of great alarm, even if it is only one ofseveral plans being considered," he adds. "The public should join theseeminent scientists in demanding that the Administration publicly renouncessuch a misbegotten option against a non-nuclear country like Iran ." The letter, which is available athttp://physics.ucsd.edu/petition/physicistsletter.html, points out that"nuclear weapons are unique among weapons of mass destruction," and thatnuclear weapons in today's arsenals have a total power of more than 200,000times the explosive

energy of the bomb that leveled Hiroshima, which causedthe deaths of more than 100,000 people. It notes that there are no sharp lines between small and large nuclearweapons, nor between nuclear weapons targeting facilities and thosetargeting armies or cities, and that the use by the United States of nuclearweapons after 60 years of non-use will make the use of nuclear weapons byothers more likely. "Once the U.S. uses a nuclear weapon again, it will heighten theprobability that others will too," the physicists write. "In a world withmany more nuclear nations and no longer a 'taboo' against the use of nuclearweapons, there will be a greatly enhanced risk that regional conflicts couldexpand into global nuclear war, with the potential to destroy ourcivilization." The letter echoes the main objection of last fall's physicists'petition,

stressing that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty will beirreversibly damaged by the use or even the threat of use of nuclear weaponsby a nuclear nation against a non-nuclear one, with disastrous consequencesfor the security of the United States and the world. "It is gravely irresponsible for the U.S. as the greatest superpower toconsider courses of action that could eventually lead to the widespreaddestruction of life on the planet. We urge the administration to announcepublicly that it is taking the nuclear option off the table in the case ofall non-nuclear adversaries, present or future, and we urge the Americanpeople to make their voices heard on this matter." The 13 physicists who coauthored the letter are: Philip Anderson,professor of physics at Princeton University and Nobel Laureate in Physics;Michael Fisher, professor of physics at the Institute for Physical

Scienceand Technology, University of Maryland and Wolf Laureate in Physics; DavidGross, professor of theoretical physics and director of the Kavli Instituteof Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Nobel Laureatein Physics; Jorge Hirsch, professor of physics at the University ofCalifornia, San Diego; Leo Kadanoff, professor of physics and mathematics atthe University of Chicago and recipient of the National Medal of Science;Joel Lebowitz, professor of mathematics and physics, Rutgers, The StateUniversity of New Jersey and Boltzmann Medalist; Anthony Leggett, professorof physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Nobel Laureate,Physics; Eugen Merzbacher, professor of physics, University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill and former president, American Physical Society;Douglas Osheroff, professor of physics and applied physics, StanfordUniversity and Nobel Laureate, Physics; Andrew Sessler,

former director ofLawrence Berkeley Laboratory and former president, American PhysicalSociety; George Trilling, professor of physics, University of California,Berkeley, and former president, American Physical Society; Frank Wilczek,professor of physics, MIT and Nobel Laureate, Physics; Edward Witten,professor of physics, Institute for Advanced Study and Fields Medalist. The physicists are sending copies of their letter to their electedrepresentatives, requesting that the issue be urgently addressed in the U.S.Senate and House of Representatives. -------- Source: University of California, San Diego, by Kim McDonald. "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but

the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

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