Dear Supporter,

I don't find myself agreeing with the Washington Post's editorial board all that often. What used to be known as a liberal newspaper has become more and more conservative, especially on war and peace issues, over the years.

But, Monday's lead editorial was a nice surprise over my morning coffee. 13 Minutes to doomsday  outlines what should be a no-brainer, the case for the U.S. and Russia to take our nuclear weapons off hair-trigger, launch-ready alert.

Of course we at Peace Action want all nuclear weapons abolished worldwide, by 5:00 this afternoon if possible! But de-alerting is one of the single most effective steps we could take to reduce the danger of nuclear war.

Tell the president he needs to do it, right away!

The title of the editorial, 13 Minutes to Doomsday, refers to the time a president would have to make a decision to launch our nuclear missiles in response to a report that the US is under nuclear attack.  Not a lot of time to prevent doomsday.

Today, you can prevent doomsday before it's too late.  To quote the Post, "the president will soon sign off on instructions to the military to implement the posture review," referring to the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review, which set overall current U.S. nuclear weapons policy.

Tell the President to take action to decrease the likelihood of an accidental or hasty decision to launch a nuclear attack. Over two decades after the end of the Cold War, this simple step of "de-alerting" nuclear weapons is long overdue.

Help me convince President Obama to take this simple step to make our country-- and the world-- safer.

Humbly for Peace,

Kevin Martin
Executive Director
Peace Action

PS : There is no sane reason for keeping nuclear weapons on hair trigger alert.  Acting together as the President prepares his instructions to the military will impact this important decision.  Get your friends involved by forwarding them this message.