Thread by @MiekeEoyang

Today is the 75th anniversary of the bombing of #Hiroshima.

It was the 1st time a nuclear weapon was used in anger & it left a searing impression on the world.

But that impression is fading, and with it the political consensus to address arms control. #Hiroshima75 <thread>

Eleven United States Senators were born before Hiroshima.

Of those, only five were older than 5 years old when the bomb was dropped.

Of the five who were old enough to remember that event, only one, @SenFeinstein, is a champion for non-proliferation.

None of the four Republican Senators old enough to remember Hiroshima voted in support of New START, the signature nuclear arms control agreement between the US and Russia.

New START is up for renewal in the beginning of 2021, and the negotiations are taking place right now.

Nuclear arms control used to be a signature Republican accomplishment. Reagan's negotiations of INF, START I. Bush Sr.'s negotiations of START II. Nunn-Lugar programs to control post-Soviet nuclear arsenals.

But Republican support for arms control has faded by attrition.

In 2003, the Senate unanimously ratified the SORT Treaty

In 2010, the Senate ratified the successor, New START 71-26.

Of the 13 Republican Senators who voted to ratify New START, only 3 are still serving: Alexander, Collins, & Murkowski.

Among the other former Senators who supported New START, 11 of the Republicans, and 15 of the Democrats have been replaced by Republicans who are unlikely to support nuclear arms control treaties going forward.

As we approach the negotiations of New START, absent a fundamental change on the part of the Republican party, ratification by the Senate is a near-impossibility.

This makes it harder for America to show that it will keep its word on arms control.

Further, President Trump's withdrawal and threatened withdrawal from signature arms control treaties has undermined much of the framework we rely on to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

INF, Open Skies, and new START are unlikely to survive Trump's presidency.

Trump has also started new nuclear weapons programs designed to destabilize the non-proliferation regime -- building smaller warheads, and investing in sea-launched nuclear missiles.

These are designed to make our adversaries think we are more likely to go nuclear.

These programs, coupled with Trump's bellicose rhetoric around nuclear weapons, make nuclear conflict more likely and increase the chances of mistake.

As they used to say, "One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day."

On this, the 75th Anniversary of Hiroshima, that event seems like a distant memory.

But as you look at the pictures of what happened in Beirut, remember, that is a fraction of the destructive power of what would happen in a nuclear detonation.

Surely, destructive power on that scale is something we should be able to agree, on a bipartisan basis, must be contained, avoided, and eliminated.

As memories fade, one party is no longer interested in doing so & is abandoning its leadership.

On #Hiroshima75, never forget.