by MacGregor Eddy
February 18, 2025, late at night, a group of seven peace activists gathered at the front gate of Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara county California. They were there both to protest against the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) armed with a dummy nuclear warhead and also to celebrate the lives of Daniel Ellsberg, David Krieger and Fr. Louie Vitale. Dan, David and Louie were all arrested 13 years ago in February of 2012 protesting an ICBM test launch, along with 12 other people. That witness was so powerful that since that date the base has NOT published the ICBM test launch dates, giving only a three-day advance notice.
The men and women in the glare of the lights at the front gate celebrated life and peace. As the missile of death blasted across the ocean we celebrated life. Friends of Dan, David and Louie gathered online in the middle of the night to remember them and to support the protesters who were at the front gate at midnight. We read poetry and told stories and created a field of love and peace to counteract the death machine, until the horrible missile blasted off at 1 am. The protesters included Elizabeth Murray of the Pacific Life Community, Leah Yananton, an artist from Los Angeles, and five others.
Test launches damage human communities and ecosystems. The Marshall Islands, already forced to bear the overwhelming environmental costs of U.S. nuclear weapons testing, are still used as a target area for the ICBM tests.
ICBMs have been sold to Congress and the public as a guarantor of security. In reality, they are an imminent threat to public safety. In the words of the late Daniel Ellsberg, author of The Doomsday Machine, these weapons make “any conflict enormously more dangerous than it has to be” by increasing “the danger that any armed conflict between major nuclear states can escalate to all-out war.” ICBMs are on hair-trigger alert and, once launched, cannot be recalled, virtually guaranteeing a retaliatory strike on the country that launches them. As long as ICBMs exist, we live with the constant risk that misinterpreted intelligence, human error, or a single rash decision could end civilization as we know it within an hour.
Maintaining these weapons is a huge waste of resources. The U.S. has committed to spending hundreds of billions of dollars to “modernize” its ICBM force, which in practice means replacing the entire system. The ICBM program is now an astonishing 81% over budget. We must stop this madness.
Tensions among nuclear-armed states are high. The U.S. military paused a test when Russia invaded Ukraine and once again when Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. These provocative tests should be stopped in the interest of peace.
The Defuse Nuclear War coalition condemns these launches in the strongest possible terms as a wasteful, dangerous step backward for peace. The continued existence of ICBMs is a profound threat to the life and security of every single person in the United States and around the world. Click here to tell Congress to put an end to such tests and such weapons.
If you want to be notified of the next launch and protest please sign up at the Defuse Nuclear War ICBM alert list.
