The president would probably never order the use of nuclear weapons (WP)

[dalton99a]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/would-the-president-actually-order-the-use-of-nuclear-weapons/2017/08/18/a7ff0ed8-837d-11e7-ab27-1a21a8e006ab_story.html

The president would probably never order the use of nuclear weapons
By Garrett M. Graff | August 18

In his years piloting the presidential nuclear command aircraft during the peak of the Cold War, Barry Walrath began to notice a pattern. The specially modified Boeing 747, known to the Air Force as an E-4B Nightwatch plane, was one of the primary places from where a president could lead the nation into war, and the crew’s key task was to train for a nuclear conflict, over and over and over again.

These drills, code-named Silver Dollar, always involved a Pentagon or White House official playing the role of the president — the National Command Authority who had unchecked power to launch nuclear weapons. Once the plane was airborne, the drills unfolded the same way. The “president” would receive a mock briefing about geopolitical tensions underway, which would quickly escalate into a thermonuclear exchange. Then would come the moment of truth: The Nightwatch crew would ask for a launch order.

That’s where the system, Walrath noticed, would stop. “No one would ever press the button — even when it was clearly a drill, even when someone had been told nothing would happen,” he recalls. “It just seemed too real. You’ve suspended disbelief. It was nasty.”

The exercises led Walrath to doubt that in the heat of the moment, faced with the horror of a global thermonuclear war, the United States would ever actually launch weapons. In every training exercise, the “president” would wait at least until missiles hit the United States before ordering retaliation. Often, he or she would not order a strike at all, watching as the scenario unfolded and the United States was obliterated. “I always wondered, if the Soviets had had any idea how reluctant we were to launch a missile, they might’ve felt entirely different,” Walrath says. “It wasn’t unusual to do nothing at all in response.”

[Sinistrous]

1. The people participating in those drills were intelligent, rational, civilized human beings.

Unfortunately, now we have Trump.

[Eliot Rosewater]

2. Without hesitation and in a heartbeat if he thought it would benefit him personally

he most certainly and absolutely would

[Hoyt]

3. Yet we did it twice.

[unblock]

9. True, though that was at a time when nuclear retaliation didn't exist

Not saying that justifies it at all, just saying nuclear retaliation is a real deterrent.

[Hoyt]

11. Agree, but too bad all the likely dead and irradiated people weren't a deterrent.

[unblock]

12. Especially when the commander-in-chief is a sociopath

[bagelsforbreakfast]

4. I'm starting to worry more about gas chambers (just sayin') n/m

[unblock]

13. Don't worry about that one bit!

I'm sure modern technology will provide something far more efficient

[PSPS]

5. It isn't really a "button" per se.

Commands are issued and someone else initiates the launching. Given how we've seen the leaders of every armed service ignore trump and contradict his proclamations in the last week or two (transgender, nazis, etc.,) I suspect any such "button" pushing by trump would also be ignored. At least I hope so.

[Hieronymus]

6. He did say, what's the use in having them if we don't use them?

[Not Ruth]

7. We should get rid of them

[unblock]

10. For better or for worse, Donnie is all hat no cowboy.

Or if you prefer, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

[liberal N proud]

8. I don't trust him!