A man who a few months ago didn’t know what a Nuclear triad was is about to gain control over nearly 7,000 nuclear weapons, enough to destroy the entire human species in a few hours. Yesterday he joined with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to jointly say the two countries’ leaders’ goals were to increase the number of nuclear weapons in their respective arsenals.
Is it more frightening that President-Elect Trump has made the statement, or that Vladimir Putin made almost the exact same statement just a few hours earlier?
Nuclear ninny?
In August then Candidate trump asked (rhetorically perhaps) why does the U.S.
have nuclear weapons if there is no intention of using them?
On December 22 P.E. Trump tweeted “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes”
This was such a frightening concept that, once again his staff rushed to “explain” he didn’t really mean what he clearly wrote. Newly appointed White House Communications Director, Jason Miller explained that Mr. Trump was [REALLY] referring to “the threat of nuclear proliferation and the critical need to prevent it — particularly to and among terrorist organizations and unstable and rogue regimes,” and not that "the U.S. must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability..."
That is supposed to calm everyone from PM Theresa May to Kim Jong-um, that he really isn’t preparing the U.S. to win a nuclear exchange.
Mid-December 2015 Candidate Trump showed that he didn’t have a basic knowledge of nuclear weapons when he couldn't respond to a question about to the nuclear triad.
After knowing that nuclear weapons were big bombs, the second most basic thing to know about the U.S. nuclear arsenal is that it has three components.
The U.S. has 14 SSBNs (ballistic missile subs) and 4 SSGN (cruise missile carrying subs) collectively called Tridents because they are the third leg of U.S.
(French, Russian, and UK) nuclear capabilities.
The first leg is bombers of various sorts, from ancient B-52’s, to B1's and any airplane capable of launching cruise missiles. The second leg of the nuclear triad is the ballistic missile.
Our President Elect will have control of enough nuclear power to destroy all human life but skips most intelligence briefings, doesn’t know what weapons we (or others) have, and has twittered the world that he will expand U.S.
nuclear capability.
The world has come within seconds of destruction when Soviet officer Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov was the deciding vote against a Soviet nuclear strike to end the Cuban Missile Crisis (and probably all humanity). Today we have a North Korean dictator who murdered his chief military adviser by having him strapped to the front of an anti-aircraft gun and “fired” for falling asleep in a meeting.
What would it take to have North Korea test whether their nuclear-tipped missile actually works?
Why briefings are so important
Mr. Trump apparently feels he would be able to catch up quickly enough if something happened, but if some 3 a.m. he were pried away from his twittering and told there may have been a missile launched from China, Russia, or North Korea, he would have less than 30 minutes to learn about the current political and military situations of all three, decide whether it was likely or unlikely that they were actually attacking, twitter a message about the warning, get rushed to a shelter or Air Force One, and still have time to decide what U.S.
response should be.
(Note: I'm not an expert, but I’m trained in nuclear physics and the effects of nuclear War, including more than a decade as a Radiologic Monitor for Pennsylvania and have a current FEMA certification in “IS00003 Radiological Emergency Management.” I also consult with a former CIA employee.)
