this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2024
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luckily for all of us, there is really no such button.
We've merely had generals trying to insert themselves into the chain of command in order to prevent Trump from launching nuclear missiles for no reason.
i am not really sure whether you agree with me or that was supposed to be some sarcastic burn, but at least some generals are in the chain of command.
the "nuclear football" is not some magic button that president presses and the nukes start flying.
it is basically sat-phone and a password, that connects the president with some command center and authenticates, to person in the command center, that the person on the other side is the ~~president~~ person holding the card with password 😀
after that long line of people follows, starting with secretary of defense and ending up with some soldier in the missile silo who physically has their hand on the button.
every single one of them has duty to disobey unlawful command.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_football https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_command_and_control
The cool thing is that thanks to the NSA and public key cryptography, the chain of authentication goes all the way down the chain of command.
When the guys in the silo get that Emergency Action Message and authenticate it, they can have confidence that it was issued under the authority of the President, or at least the holder of the Presidential biscuit.
It's both - I'm well aware that it's not just pressing a random button behind a curtain, and it's a bit of an issue that generals under Trump were thinking seriously about disobeying a military order because the considered him to be potentially erratic around the use of nuclear weapons.