Bringing The Nuclear Football Along

AMONG THE MOST BIZARRE AND FRIGHTENUNG circumstances of American political and military policy is the fact that the predisent of the United States,and only the president ofthe united States,has complete,absolute contril of the entire national nuclear arsenal. Whether the U.S.drops an atom bomb from a plane,or fires one from a submarine or surface naval vessel, or delivers one on an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile is entirely and only the decision of the chief executive. No congressional approval is needed, no ruling by any court of law, no checks and balances of any sort. The reason is that in any conceivable situation in which the U.S. deploys a nuke against a foreign enemy, the decision would, under all possible circumstances, have to be made at a moment's notice,and deliberation, planning, and consultation simply would not be possible, for lack of time. Hence, for more than half a century, the president, no matter who he or she is, is constantly accompanied,followed around, by a duly authorized military person who carries the so called "nuclear football", a briefcase in which the nuclear code is kept, available only to the president. The president knows the sequence of numbers needed to unleash hell on Earth, and, should he or she so decide, recites them to the football carrier, and the rest, as we say, is history. Nuclear war ensues, the particulars, such as upon whom to drop a bomb and how many bombs to drop and the means of delivering them also being the exclusive perogative of the president. Experts and analysts are quite well aware of the utter insanity of this situation. But what situation can you imagine pertaining to a nation's nuclear arsenal is not insane, in an insane world with insanely powerful weapons? Much of the bizarre and frightening nature of this circumstance derives directly from the people who have thus far been presidents of the United States. Ronald Reagan,in his senile second term,football in hand. Donald Trump. Nothing more need be said, other than "Trump and control of the nuclear arsenal". If that thought doesn't frighten you, nothing can or will. How this lunacy came ino being begins with Oppenheier, Groves,and the Manhatten project,and Harry Truman, who allowed the military to decide how many bombs to drop on Japan and when, and where, without truly understanding the destructive power of twenty thousand tons of dynamite. True, Truman made the decision to use the bomb,but left the particulars to his generals,assuming that they would choose military targets.Indeed they chose military targets,with large cities surrounding them. At frst Harry S. was giddy with glee at the successfull targeting of Japan, and said so to the American people. But when he found out the details; that two large cities, full of hundreds of thousands of civilian women and children had been vaporied, and that yet another bomb, a third one, was being prepared, he screamed, in horror: "for God's sake STOP! No more!" Give 'em hell, Harry. So horrified was he that he said, for now on don't even think about using the damned thing again without my expressed approval, and exclusive presidential control of atom bombs was firmly installed as American policy. Truamn lived another twenty five years, and he couldn't stop talking about it. He repeatedly said that he never lost a minute's sleep about it, and that if he had to do it all over again, he would. The words of a man horrified and shocked by events while he was at the controls, trying to assauge his guilt and horror. A quarter of a million women and children murdered. Military targets. Truman is lucky he didn't end up in a psych ward, undergoing intensive therapy. Maybe he should have.