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With a single command, he could unleash the equivalent of 10k Hiroshima bombs and end civilization as we know it, no sign-off from Congress or the Pentagon.
After Hiroshima, President Harry Truman decided that these weapons were too destructive to be put into the military's control, and order that only the President could authorize their use.
What do you think? Who should have their finger on the button? As impetuous as Trump is, could he mistake the button for sending one of his tweets?
There is no button. Everyone should know that by now. The President has a card called "the biscuit" which is a code name for the notecard used to open the black attache case, known as "the football." That suitcase holds nuclear codes which the US president would use to authorize the launch of nuclear weapons. He orders other people do launch so if he is off his rocker they would not obey the order.
I wonder why those weird codenames (the biscuit, the football). Everyone knows what that means, and whoever doesn't know can Google it.
Sounds childish ...
BTW:
There are four things in the Football. The Black Book containing the retaliatory options, a book listing classified site locations, a manila folder with eight or ten pages stapled together giving a description of procedures for the Emergency Alert System, and a three-by-five-inch [7.5 × 13 cm] card with authentication codes.
It is argued that the president has almost sole authority to initiate a nuclear attack since the secretary of defense is required to verify the order, but cannot veto it.
The operational plan for nuclear strike orders is entirely concerned with the identity of the commanding officer and the authenticity of the order, and there are no safeguards to verify that the person issuing the order is actually sane.
The vice president, the secretary of defense, and the deputy secretary of defense also have nuclear footballs.
The football is carried by one of the rotating presidential military aides, who has undergone the nation's most rigorous background check (Yankee White)
The US government has a history of code naming things associated with atomic weaponry rather silly names. In WWII for instance the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima was called Little Boy and the one that hit Nagasaki Fat Man. Perhaps subconsciously there is an attempt to obfuscate the meaning of massively destructive weapons with words that don’t suggest death and destruction to the scientists who build such bombs and those who have to destroy cities and people.
There is no button. Everyone should know that by now. The President has a card called "the biscuit" which is a code name for the notecard used to open the black attache case, known as "the football." That suitcase holds nuclear codes which the US president would use to authorize the launch of nuclear weapons. He orders other people do launch so if he is off his rocker they would not obey the order.
"Oh, if someone orders a launch and there's not a good reason, hopefully someone in the chain of command - someone who has been instilled with decades of military discipline to follow orders - will refuse to obey the order!" is some serious happy-talk.
Quote:
Originally Posted by elnina
I wonder why those weird codenames (the biscuit, the football). Everyone knows what that means, and whoever doesn't know can Google it.
Sounds childish ...
They're not codenames. They're just casual terms.
It's easier to say "Where's the football?" than it is to say "Where's the satchel containing the Black Book detailing all of our nuclear retaliatory options, a book listing classified site locations, the manila folder with eight or ten pages stapled together giving a description of procedures for the Emergency Alert System, and a three-by-five-inch (that's seven-and-a-half by thirteen centimeters - card with authentication codes?"
The operational plan for nuclear strike orders is entirely concerned with the identity of the commanding officer and the authenticity of the order, and there are no safeguards to verify that the person issuing the order is actually sane.
]
They might consider it an illegal order that they don't have to obey. I don't think a President would launch a nuclear attack without most high ranking generals agreeing with it. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42065714
With a single command, he could unleash the equivalent of 10k Hiroshima bombs and end civilization as we know it, no sign-off from Congress or the Pentagon.
After Hiroshima, President Harry Truman decided that these weapons were too destructive to be put into the military's control, and order that only the President could authorize their use.
What do you think? Who should have their finger on the button? As impetuous as Trump is, could he mistake the button for sending one of his tweets?
I can't tell if your serious or not, especially with that last statement.
Would you be willing to take away the authority to launch nuclear weapons from any future president as well?
I can't tell if your serious or not, especially with that last statement.
Would you be willing to take away the authority to launch nuclear weapons from any future president as well?
I think you ask a good question, but when we look at this from a national perspective, we Americans do not know the names of military generals, or the qualifications of people on the National Security Council.
We do have high expectations that the Commander-In-Chief is honest, respectable, full of wisdom, and will do the right thing. For that, I think the authority should stay with the President.
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