According to essays like this one, people allegedly have a duty to disobey nuclear launch orders:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/42697-the-duty-to-disobey-a-nuclear-launch-order
As someone who in a former life was in a position to execute such launch orders, I can emphatically state that claim is BULLSHIT.
The way the system is set up, an authenticated order is DEFINED to be a legal order. There is no provision for arguing its legality once it is given.
Anyone who does NOT want to execute an authenticated order should NOT be in the military ... period.
But from my perspective, the world should have done away with nuclear weapons a long time ago. They serve no useful good purpose ... NONE. We have had PLENTY of opportunities to do so, but have refused. Why? Exactly what would anyone (e.g., Ms. Cohn) consider to be a LEGAL order to use nuclear weapons?
The RIGHT way to address this problem is to declare ALL nuclear weapons to be ILLEGAL (including ours) ... and to AGGRESSIVELY pursue their destruction. And that includes (especially) the nuclear weapons possessed by Israel.
Here is the opinion of ADM Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:
ReplyDelete"Well, I think any senior military officer always approaches it from the standpoint of we're not going to follow an illegal order. That said, the president is in a position to give a legal order to use those weapons. And the likelihood that given that order that it would be carried out I think would be pretty high."