Statecraft

President's role in a nuclear world

Trump should be more careful in what he says, but I don’t believe he’s a wild-eyed maniac bent on nuclear holocaust. We need to understand that the world is dangerous and some unstable countries possess nuclear weapons, especially North Korea and Pakistan, and perhaps in a decade, Iran. I believe Trump will no doubt be very circumspect and serious about national security when he’s fully briefed on our emergency war order execution plans.

Without divulging classified information, our posture today is much more passive than in the 1950s when we flew nuclear-loaded B-52 bombers around the globe or when we had positive target sets for other weapons systems. In fact our strategic bomber force is no longer on quick reaction alert. For full details on our nuclear weapons history, I recommend the book “Command and Control” by Eric Schlosser.