President-elect Donald Trump made waves on Thursday by tweeting that the US must “expand its nuclear capability” until “the world comes to its senses.”
It’s the latest in a string of remarks the president-elect has made, either during the campaign or following its conclusion, that have raised some eyebrows about the US’s nuclear arsenal.
His prior statements led some to question: Could a president make the decision to use a nuclear weapon without any interference from others?
Bruce Blair, a former Minuteman missile-launch officer and research scholar at Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security, told Business Insider in September that the answer, essentially, is yes.
Blair pointed to a step-by-step outline of the nuclear chain of command, which he helped describe in Bloomberg earlier in September.
This doesn't sound right.
When I was in SAC, we were taught that there is "fail safe" built into the system consisting of a staff of generals and admirals who receive and review the president's order to launch and THEY make the final decision to launch and this is partly based on the post WWII trials when a number of the SS guards at the death camps tried to use the defense that they were just doing their jobs and following orders for the crimes they committed. They were all hung sending a clear message that, just doing your job and following orders, is not a valid defense for obeying an order you know is wrong. Therefore, if these officers believe the president is wrong in ordering a nuke launch, they can refuse to obey the order as per national and international law. We were taught that this is a "fail safe" built into the system to prevent the president for any number of reasons losing it and ordering an unjustified nuke launch.
It should be noted that these officers stay on top of all developments which might require the use of nukes and have a better idea than the president as to whether nukes should be used.
If this is no longer true, then they have really screwed up the system and made it more dangerous and flawed.
NO MILITARY PERSON IS REQUIRED TO OBEY AN UNLAWFUL ORDER FROM ANYONE INCLUDING THE PRESIDENT! Period. It is illegal for anyone to order you to commit a crime and it is also a crime for you to obey and commit that crime. Period.
The US president is NOT a dictator and there are checks and balances to prevent him from acting like a dictator.