No One Should Have Sole Authority to Launch a Nuclear Attack

Scientific American ^ | The August 2017 Issue | The Editors

[Sequoyah101]

Not science. They should leave this alone and STHU.

Quit reading popular science and nat geo when they began social engineering also.

[Navy Patriot]

Sorry, but I do not read Scientology American.

They publish without proof. reading.

[T-Bird45]

“Sorry, but entire article is BS. POTUS cannot launch on his own. SECDEF, SECSTATE, AG or others at that level must “confirm” order.”

Exactly!! Thus the “National Command Authority” is the source of nuclear release orders to the force, not from the President alone.

[halfright]

We elected him for this reason. No more bullsh*p. You twitch and you are toast.

[AndyJackson]

He or she can decide to trigger a thermonuclear Armageddon without consulting anyone at all and never has to demonstrate mental fitness.

The ignorance of this statement is staggering. Nuclear command and control is complex and robust. The President can do nothing by himself except throw a temper tantrum and smash whatever crockery is at hand. Yes he can use codes to authorize a strike, but the admirals and generals on watch in the nuclear command and control system must execute the orders, and on a quiet sunny sunday afternoon with not much going on they might come back with, Mr. President, is Barron playing with the football again?

[GOPJ]

Remember these articles during the Obama and Clinton administrations?

Ding, ding, ding - we have a thread winnah!

[Calvin Locke]

... and a formal declaration of war.

To speed things up, maybe they could use the emergency "Declaration of War: The Short Form"? /"Buckaroo Banzai"

[ex91B10]

But Hilary with PMS would be alright

[Calvin Locke]

They will be collecting data ...

Yeah, right. What difference does it make? They'll only cook or make up the numbers to support their insane theories.

[LegendHasIt]

Scientific American.

Neither Scientific, nor American.

Discuss.
......................................
Plus: No one man can actually launch a nuclear attack. It is not like the President actually has a button that makes the missiles go, and the bombs to fall out of the planes.

[the_daug]

My mother was a librarian at National Bureau of Standards in Boulder Colorado and SA was one of the magazines I would read. In the 80s I subscribed to their magazine and it was was so political it became hard and disappointing to read like Mother earth news use to have articles about how to live and grow food or make money on a small acreage and homesteading. both became POS diatribe riddled man is destroying the planet rags.

[mountainlion]

Didn’t Clinton lose the “football” for months?

[YogicCowboy]

Ah, yes, we need The Committee to control it... and us.

[dpetty121263]

I disagree...a good nuke launch will thin out the herd, Lord knows we need it as to many are living longer than they really should.

[SauronOfMordor]

For 20 Years the Nuclear Launch Code at US Minuteman Silos Was 00000000

[JimSEA]

SA needs to direct this concern toward the fat boy in North Korea. That’s were the real threat resides. Also do some thinking about limiting the mad mullahs in Iran as they will have the bomb shortly. Trump may be impulsive but not to this degree.

[CodeToad]

Total bullsh*t article. The National Command Authority is not a singularity of the President. President Eisenhower was a smart man and new that giving a single nutcase such power would be disastrous.

Launch authority and the sequence of events is classified, but it ain’t just the president.

[Trentamj]

This article is total red-herring BS. Although the President formally has the sole say-so regarding a nuclear attack, the fact is, NO US President has ever actually done so. If anyone one thinks that Harry Truman dragged a reluctant US Army into nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then he or she needs to do some remedial history study. Such a monumental act was a committee decision, and you can bet that Harry had every advocate for using the bomb sign their name in blood prior to giving the go-ahead. No matter what crackpot historians tell you, no US President is going to give the nuclear okey-dokey entirely on his or her (especially her) own.

[Mark]

Global Warming is much more of an issue, Denier!

[a fool in paradise]

Russia has an automated doomsday launch system in case a button pusher gets cold feet.

Leftards ate okay with that.