Letter by Sue Wareham, MAPW Vice President and ACT branch convenor, published Sunday 30 April 2017 in the Age newspaper
Letter by Sue Wareham, MAPW Vice President and ACT branch convenor, published Sunday 30 April 2017 in the Age newspaper
Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull might have missed it, but the US tested a nuclear launch missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California last Wednesday. It was a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, of which the US has about 400 armed with nuclear warheads, in addition to their thousands of other nuclear weapons. The test was worthy of some of that outrage directed to North Korea, but Australia was silent, as befits our status as a clanging echo of Washington.
If Bishop and Turnbull were genuinely concerned about peace, they would be urging diplomatic talks with North Korea, and de-escalation of this crisis. Australia would also be joining, rather than opposing, UN talks to prohibit all nuclear weapons.
Sue Wareham, Cook, ACT