Dismantling America's huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons was proving to be a more difficult task than most could have imagined. But, because it was taking longer - and was being done under public scrutiny - the world quickly came to recognize that Colin Powell was a man of his word. Other nations sent representatives to the U.S., who returned home convinced that America was, indeed, destroying its weapons of mass destruction. Such effort would take a long time - in fact, it was now estimated it could take several years due to the delicacy of the work and the enormity of the inventory.. But virtually every assembly of military personnel, statesmen, and scientists who witnessed the American activity advised their respective countries to follow suit. Already, many other nations had begun their own programs, dismantling their own arsenals, and inviting representatives from other countries to observe the activity.
O.U.T.R.A.G.E. members were flying to other nations as official representatives of Colin Powell, strongly urging the total destruction of all nuclear weapons. Understandably, some nations viewed this as an American ploy aimed at its own self-interests. After all, the United States of America ws perhaps as vulnerable as ever in its history, and it would make perfectly good sense to persuade enemies and allies alike to destroy armaments that could be used to further destroy America. Some countries promised to take the American recommendations under advisement with their various political assemblies. Some more adamant leaders would only commit to a cautious "consideration" of such proposals. Certainly, the possibility always existed America could have a private stockpile of weapons that no one knew about; it was also well known that the Bush administration had placed standing orders for continuous production of additional nuclear weapons. While the American public was unaware of such orders, most nations' intelligence communities knew that more nuclear weapons were still being built everyday in the U.S.A. They also knew that many of the corporations who produced these weapons had been demolished by O.U.T.R.A.G.E. on January 17; but that didn't necessarily preclude the possibility that production was still ongoing in some remote bomb-building factory that itself hadn't been bombed.
It was an issue of trust, and many nations of the world hadn't trusted other nations of the world for centuries. But Powell's initiative went further: he proposed that the global community collectively pool its resources spent on defense and war to create "a mammoth world-wide environmental fund dedicated to renewing our good Earth". His message was delivered personally by O.U.T.R.A.G.E. members to leaders of more than 175 countries all over the globe. Exhaustive plans were outlined for the creation of international recycling programs; the reduction of damages being caused by global warming; repair of the fragile ozone layer; and the cessation of such earth-damaging activities such as deforestation, oil drilling, strip mining, and the invasion of the oceans. Powell's comprehensive outline was backed up by documentation from many of the world's most prominent and learned scientists, environmentalists, and naturalists, all of whom agreed that human infestation of the Earth have come close to obliterating the very planet on which humans live. It was time, Powell argued, to stop the insanity. "Together," he stated, "we have the fiscal and human resources to make this a better world instead of warring with one another toward our mutual mass elimination."
The global community was skeptical, yet impressed. Powell's plan made common sense. Pulling everyone together would be the challenge.