To be clear, I am not a Trump apologist. Over a year ago, I disqualified both candidates who are now the major party standard-bearers. In recent days, I’ve heard some fallacies about one of the candidates involving a subject I might know something about: national defense. So, let me clear that up for you.
I cannot talk a great deal about our nation’s nuclear arsenal or, unlike Hillary Clinton, I’d go to jail. But, her campaign keeps putting up the argument that a “lunatic Trump” would start a nuclear war if he were elected president of the United States. I don’t think so. Here’s why.
The nation’s nuclear arsenal is controlled by the national command authority (NCA). What is the NCA? “The NCA consists only of the President and the Secretary of Defense or their duly deputized alternates or successors. The chain of command runs from the President to the Secretary of Defense (SecDef) and through the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Commanders of the Unified and Specified Commands. The channel of communication for execution of the Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP) and other time-sensitive operations shall be from the NCA through the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, representing the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the executing commanders. — Section 3.1, Department of Defense Directive Number 5100.30, December 2, 1971
Oh, and just in case you’re wondering:
- The SIOP was the nuclear war order. It’s now called something else.
- While Trump would be new, a lot of the commanding generals are already in-place. If you have concerns about who would start a nuclear war, it would involve these people who are serving our current commander-in-chief. Launching the SIOP is not quite the same thing as the president turning to the generals and telling them to get rid of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Let’s be reasonable, even if you think Trump isn’t.
- This is Wikipedia—please forgive me for this source, but in this case, it’s accurate. And, not even Hillary would go to jail for using Wiki. For my students: never use Wikipedia on your papers. But, I digress.
So, no one can simply order nuclear war by himself (or herself for that matter). The fact that Trump has mentioned he’d use nuclear weapons (if necessary) simply gives our prospective future national enemies something to think about. I don’t have a problem with that at all. Here’s why.
To have an arsenal is one thing. But, to hesitate or give other nations the impression that you’d never use it anyway, gives an entrée to others (like the Chinese, Iranians and North Koreans) to pursue their own interests without fear. President Reagan never had this issue.
What’s the big deal, they would ask, if the United States doesn’t have the will to use their arsenal under the Obama or a Clinton Administration? And what have these countries done in recent years? They are building their own nuclear arsenals and grabbing land in the South China Sea. Even Putin, who doesn’t really respect our President and his foreign policy, wants to get in on this by telling his own people to prepare for nuclear war. And you’re threatened by a Trump presidency?
To conclude, I think there are plenty of concerns in this election but a “lunatic Trump” single-handedly starting a nuclear war wouldn’t be one of them. Electing someone who has violated national security as well as election law is of great concern to me. Who would want to work in her diplomatic corps or State Department (much less, the Pentagon)? We’ve already seen what her foreign policy looks like. To me, that constitutes the greater clear and present danger to the future of our country and the world.