America’s Nuclear Crisis
May 11, 2013 in Daily Bulletin
Robert Burns talked about a very different kind of nuclear crisis:
- The Air Force recently suspended 17 officers who have the authority to launch intercontinental nuclear missiles because they were determined to be unfit for the role.
- The problem is a crisis of morale. The world is moving towards fewer nuclear weapons, not more, and so officers in the units think they’re careers are headed nowhere.
- Moreover the task of manning the nuclear missiles isn’t particularly glamorous. It involves standing around 60 feet underground, with the launch keys, waiting for the President to make a decision to initiate a nuclear attack.
Read more about the problems with the guardians of American nuclear weapons, how the Air Force is trying to fix the problem, and what political leaders have to say over here.
Source: ABC News
The notion that people would start a nuclear war because their career is going nowhere is bull crap. The military may declare a soldier unfit for many reasons- not just for mental issues. Don’t forget that a nuclear weapon can only be launched when the correct code is entered into the computer and both keys are turned simultaneously, while being too far apart for a single person to launch a missile. If a single missile happened to be launched because two insane people worked together, in the same silo, at the same time AND happened to guess the correct code for launch – we now have weapons like the MTHEL or airborne 747 lasers capable of shooting down missiles. IF god forbid all the safeguards were circumvented and the missile was not shot down by the several laser systems or missile to missile weapons like Israel’s “kipaht barzel”- The targeted country would be contacted by the white house and their defenses would have a shot at a single incoming missile. And even if it slipped through all of their defenses there would not be a total nuclear response because everyone knows what it means and the cold war is very very cold. You can sleep well at night…. really, you can!