(Reuters) Trump orders nuclear submarines moved near Russia

[RaleBulgarian]

I'm not wrong,

You are wrong, and have been proven so.

If you want to keep banging on that drum, be my guest, but I won't respond to it.

No “banging on” here, and I’m done here as well.

 

[multivita-man]

You are wrong, and have been proven so.

In your mind.

 

[Bullseye]

No, no, no. The only submarines with nuclear weapons in the US are SSBNs. The fast attacks do not carry nukes that don't require berthing, food, and air.

Ok, what ever.

 

[RaleBulgarian]

Making him a warmongerer.

And doesn't change that it has nothing to do with whether this particular set of orders included anything but possibly SSBNs being deployed if he was talking about nuclear armed submarines.

The main issue with Trump though is that he says a lot of things he knows nothing about. I do believe he believes he was discussing nuclear armed subs, not nuclear powered submarines, which narrows it down to the reality of only SSBNs right now, if it actually occurred. However, being Trump, he could have been talking about any number of things. He could have simply lied. He could have been briefed there were nuclear submarines in the area and those either be nuclear armed (SSBNs) or nuclear powered only and he just believes they are nuclear armed (as context indicates this is what he believes is there). He could have even ordered "nuclear armed subs" into the area. There are likely about a half dozen more combinations of possibilities for the reality vs what Trump said for this specific scenario.

The only certainty in all of this is Traitor Trump’s childish mentality, profound stubborn ignorance, and innate stupidity.

 

[Toggle Almendro]

Making him a warmongerer.

I don't think that favoring the development of a weapons system makes someone a warmonger.

Personally I am against reintroducing nuclear tomahawks. But that is because I really dislike the idea of nuclear cruise missiles.

Back in the 1990s when we fired lots of conventional cruise missiles, it was inevitable that 2 or 3 percent of them would go off and hit the wrong target. The missiles were not out of control or anything. Their guidance system was clearly just locked onto the wrong target.

The first time it was really noticed was at the end of the 1991 Iraq war when one of our cruise missiles decided that its target was the main international hotel in Baghdad. But each time we thought we fixed the problem, the next time we launched a few hundred cruise missiles 2 or 3 percent of them would go off and strike an unintended target that was nowhere near where the missile was supposed to go. Eventually we stopped firing large volleys of cruise missiles, but there was no sign that we ever fixed the problem.

So if we ever have a nuclear war and fire off a volley of 500 cruise missiles, we can expect 2 or 3 percent of them to go off and nuke a random target that we are not intending to attack. Could be an ally. Could be a neutral country. Could be a hostile country that we weren't at war with.

So if I had my way, we'd do away with nuclear cruise missiles altogether. Our ICBMs and SLBMs are enough of a deterrent all on their own. And our stealth bombers will work fine just dropping gravity bombs.

And doesn't change that it has nothing to do with whether this particular set of orders included anything but possibly SSBNs being deployed if he was talking about nuclear armed submarines.

The main issue with Trump though is that he says a lot of things he knows nothing about. I do believe he believes he was discussing nuclear armed subs, not nuclear powered submarines, which narrows it down to the reality of only SSBNs right now, if it actually occurred. However, being Trump, he could have been talking about any number of things. He could have simply lied. He could have been briefed there were nuclear submarines in the area and those either be nuclear armed (SSBNs) or nuclear powered only and he just believes they are nuclear armed (as context indicates this is what he believes is there). He could have even ordered "nuclear armed subs" into the area. There are likely about a half dozen more combinations of possibilities for the reality vs what Trump said for this specific scenario.

I assume that he sent extra SSBNs out on patrol.

 

[Toggle Almendro]

He needs the permission of absolutely no one. Not Congress. Not the judiciary. Not the Secretary of Defense. The decision to launch a nuclear strike is the President's alone. The process was carefully developed during the height of the Cold War to give the president fast-strike capabilities. Yes, top brass could refuse and quit, but the system has redundancies built into it.

Well, yes and no. The point that you are making is correct. But there is an interesting complication.

During the '60s and '70s, the Air Force was concerned about the possibility that the national leadership could be taken out before ordering the ICBMs to be launched, so the Air Force secretly set the launch code of every ICBM to "00000000" without telling anyone.

They still planned to use the official launch codes to verify that an order was valid, but they did not actually need those launch codes in order to launch the ICBMs.

 

[Toggle Almendro]

If Traitor Trump arbitrarily ordered a nuclear strike on any country, the order would be refused.

Not likely. The guy at the pentagon would just verify that the launch codes were accurate.

Any order that does not have a valid military purpose, is not clear, specific, and narrowly drawn, and/or conflicts with with the statutory or constitutional rights of the person receiving the order.
Contrary to the too commonly shared beliefs of those that have never served, military personnel do not blindly obey any order given, legal or illegal.

Except a nuclear launch order is just a code that is either validated or not validated.

Gen. John Hyten, who is the commander of US Strategic Command, shared what would happen if he were ordered to launch a nuclear strike.

What the commander of US Strategic Command would or would not do is irrelevant. He is not in the chain of command to launch nukes. His job is just to organize the bureaucracy.

A nuclear launch order goes directly from the President to a full-bird colonel at the Pentagon who validates the launch codes. If validated, he sends the launch order directly to the ICBM silos.

 

[Metric Mouse]

I took a nap... did I miss WW III?