In
late April, Jorge Hirsch, a UCSD professor of physics, and a dozen
other prominent physicists, wrote a letter to President Bush, calling
U.S. plans to reportedly use nuclear weapons against Iran “gravely
irresponsible” and warning that such action would have “disastrous
consequences for the security of the United States and the world.”
Last September, Hirsch and physics professor Kim Greist began a
grass roots petition following reports that the federal government
was
in the final process of adopting new Defense Department proposals
on the deployment of nuclear weapons. “The new policy allows
the U.S. to use nuclear weapons against states that do not have nuclear
weapons and for a host of new reasons, including rapid termination
of a conflict on U.S. terms or to ensure success of the U.S. forces,” says
Hirsch. Griest and Hirsch put their petition on
the Internet at http://physics.ucsd.edu/petition and, to date,
more than 1,800 physicists, including seven Nobel laureates, have
signed. 
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