WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Caldicott made the comment after President Obama discussed with Cameron the possible deployment of new US cruise missiles in the United Kingdom as a reaction to Russia’s alleged deployment of Iskander ballistic missiles in the Kaliningrad province.
“[The deployment of US] cruise missiles [in the UK] would violate the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty,” Caldicott said on Monday. “That would be a very dangerous move on Obama and [British Prime Minister David] Cameron’s part.”
Obama and Cameron reportedly discussed the issue when they met at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in the Bavarian Alpine town of Krun in Germany on Sunday.
“We are dangerously close to having a nuclear war by increased international tension or through human error,” Caldicott said. “Whenever there is international tension, the readiness standings of nuclear forces on either side is always increased.”
Further, the weapons are so small and mobile that “they can be hidden anywhere, even under a haystack,” she said.
The danger of miscalculation was greater than it had ever been during the Cold War “because at no point in the Cold War were NATO forces anywhere near Russia’s own borders,” she added.
IPPNW under Caldicott’s leadership was awarded the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.
Caldicott, an Australian physician, has been one of the world’s leading anti-nuclear activists for more than 40 years. She is also the founder and leader of the Helen Caldicott Foundation for a Nuclear Free-Future and the author of many books including “If You Love This Planet” and “The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush’s Military Industrial Complex.”
The Smithsonian Institution has named Caldicott one of the most influential women of the 20th century.
