Helena, Mont._Contrary to statements by Sens. Max Baucus and Conrad Burns, Montana needs less, not more, nuclear warheads, according to Paul Richards, Democratic U.S. Senatorial candidate.  Nine countries currently possess some 30,000 atomic weapons, enough to destroy the planet many times over, Richards said.  Nearly all these missiles are in the United States and Russia.

          On Friday, the Pentagon recommended cutting 50 ballistic missiles from the nation’s nuclear force, a move strongly criticized by Baucus and Burns, because the cuts might affect employment at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana.

          “We’ve got to see beyond pork,” said Richards, speaking before the Democratic Action Club in Helena.  “We’ve got to do what is best for the planet.  Instead of lobbying for nuclear missiles, we’ve got to resuscitate the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that was abandoned largely due to opposition from the United States, Iran, and Egypt. 

          “As we have seen in North Korea, dozens of countries could build atomic bombs if they wanted to.  This is a crucial time for the United States to provide world leadership,” said Richards a former state representative who lives in the Boulder valley south of Helena.  “We must steer the world toward less, not more, nuclear bombs.  We must set an example for the rest of the world.  Congress needs to actively revitalize the international nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that the Bush administration helped sabotage on May 12, 2005.
 
          “Is it fair to ask other countries in the world community to reduce or eliminate their nuclear arsenals, yet fail to reduce our own?,” Richards asked. 

          “If we are truly worried about employment at Malmstrom, let us find peaceful, constructive purposes for our highly skilled workforce,” Richards continued.  “For example, let us begin building millions of wind generators that will help end the United States’ addiction to imported oil; an addiction that requires oil wars.

          “As we have seen, opportunistic oil-dictated policies can prop up repressive foreign dictatorships, such as the U.S. currently does in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, or as we did in the past with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and the Shah of Iran,” Richards said.  “Instead of spending hundreds of billions of dollars playing world policeman and supporting dictators, we can invest that money into our nation’s energy infrastructure.

          “Every farmer could harvest wind power, every rooftop generate solar electricity, every car be made fuel-efficient, and every home and factory be insulated – all for a pittance what we spend on nuclear arsenals and oil wars. 

          “Energy independence and nuclear non-proliferation are the solutions.  Instead of pouring our money into atomic warheads, we need renewable energy, serious conservation programs, millions of small-scale generation projects, and subsequent strengthened local economies now,” Richards concluded.