We find that what our leaders say and what they do are often entirely different. For example, the US government repeatedly states that it favors the elimination of nuclear weapons. Yet it is modernizing its nuclear arsenal, conducting subcritical nuclear weapons tests, and has admitted that reliance on nuclear weapons will remain a cornerstone of national security policy for the indefinite future. As a principal sponsor of the World Court Project which succeeded in obtaining a ruling from the International Court of Justice on the illegality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons, affiliates were instrumental in obtaining support from the World Health Organization for this effort. The campaign's goal is to achieve a signed global agreement committing the nations of the world to a timetable for complete nuclear disarmment.
Conventional war is responsible for human suffering and death on a pandemic scale.
The 20th century has been the most violent in history, killing at least 110 million people. Since the fall of the Berlin wall, more than four million people, many of them women and children, have died in violent conflicts. In early 1997 more than 35 million people were refugees or had been displaced by war. In war-torn countries, doctors work to heal the physical and psychological wounds of violent conflict. In a world armed to the teeth, precious resources are poured into the military while billions go without food and health care.