Müs wrote:
Diamondeye wrote:
Worries about Trump "having the nuclear codes" are so vapid and insincere as to be alarming in and of themselves.
Why are these not legitimate concerns? That man should not have that kind of power.
Because he won't have that kind of power. The President cannot launch a first strike without confirmation from SECDEF or another elected or confirmed person.
If you actually think that this person would do so - or that even Trump would do so - for entirely trivial reasons - you are entirely too stupid or too concerned with confirming your own prejudices to have opinions at all. Cynicism is not analysis. Donald Trump is rude, boorish, insensitive, crude, and a number of other socially objectionable attributes. He is not the least bit interested in seeing the country reduced to a pile of rubble. That's just being silly. When Donald Trump asks "if we have them, why can't we use them?" that does not mean "I want to use them", it means "I don't understand why we don't." This should not be a surprise -
he's a businessman. Even the President doesn't need to know all the ins and outs of targeting, attack options, etc. - that's all worked out in advance by people pouring over maps with pie cutters all day.
Having one's figure on the nuclear trigger tends to moderate temperments. Castro was egging the Soviets on to nuke the U.S. in 1963 - the men with the nukes backed down. Mao used a lot of aggressive rhetoric - nuclear China suddenly became very reserved. India and Pakistan eye each other warily, but their wars are pretty much slapfights these days. Israel in 1973 fearing total collapse prepared its weapons for use in such a way as to be easily detected, hoping to get the Soviets and the U.S. to put an end to things - they were trying to avoid having to actually use one.
The fact that at a Presidential debate a reporter would actually ask whether another candidate thinks that because Trump said something mean about her, does she therefore think he would start a nuclear war is proof positive that no one seriously thinks he would actually do it. If people seriously thought Trump would start a nuclear war - if there were ANY real indicator of that -
no other issue would be newsworthy. You're not even worried about it. It's something you say on the internet. Our entire nuclear force is atrophying and decaying and has been for decades but no one cares about that; "lol lookit Trump gunna start sum nuke **** don't vote 4 him" is evidently way more fun.
And I'm taking a page from Coro's book and not giving a class on nuclear weapons. I've spent hundreds of hours both professionally and personally on these and related issues. I've spoken to some of the pie-cutter professionals mentioned above. I am not teaching a course on nukes for **** free.