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WASHINGTON: Yesterday’s concerns about the state of mind of US President Donald Trump centered on his power to unleash a nuclear attack.
Two days after Trump supporters, under his support, stormed the United States Capitol and closed Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she had contacted the top general of the Pentagon, Mark Milley (pix), to understand how to prevent “a deranged president” from using the secret nuclear launch codes to order a nuclear attack.
As Milley presumably told you, the United States constitution gives the president exclusive power to launch a nuclear weapon.
Congress cannot interfere, and Pentagon leaders, generals and civilians, are obligated to convey their order, whether they agree with it or not.
Wherever he travels, the president is accompanied by an aide who carries the “nuclear soccer ball,” a bag containing instructions, attack plans, and codes to initiate a nuclear attack that only the president can use.
Given the need to consider justification, what equipment to use, and what targets are chosen, that decision would normally be made in consultation with the defense chiefs.
But once the president decides, either after much deliberation or in a fit of anger, “neither the military nor Congress can override these orders,” read a December report on nuclear command and control from the US Investigative Service. Congress.
The strike must be ‘legal’
The only restriction for the American leader in this case is the legality of the strike. The laws of war would allow a military officer to refuse to execute an order to do something illegal.
But questions about the legality of the order – whether it is consistent with the requirements, under the armed conflict laws of necessity, proportionality, and distinction – are more likely to lead to consultations and changes to the president’s order than to a denial of the military to carry out the order, ”according to the Congressional Investigation Service report.
If the president decides to order an attack, he would normally consult the military chiefs to learn his options.
In “football” he would find options for the attack and communications team to formally order it.
He would use a unique code card for himself, called a “cookie,” to certify his identification as the commander-in-chief authorized to order a launch.
The launch order would then be relayed to US Strategic Command, where an officer would confirm that it came from the president and the execution would take place.
It can take as little as two minutes from order to launch from a land-based nuclear-tipped missile, or 15 minutes from a submarine.
“People in the chain of command can technically refuse to obey an order, but a verified order is presumed to be legal,” said Derek Johnson of the anti-nuclear organization Global Zero.
“The pressure to obey would be enormous.”
In all of this, there are no exceptions in the nuclear command and control system for a scenario in which the president appears mentally unstable and ignores the advice of his generals.
In that case, the only option, which Pelosi has called for in the Trump case, is to invoke the 25th amendment to the constitution to remove a president from power. – AFP
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